Madrid’s ‘next Xabi Alonso’ who had to retire at 19: ‘My dream is to run for 10 minutes without pain’

The name Marc Cucalon might not mean much to you, but his story will stay with you.

Now 20, Cucalon was one of the brightest talents in Real Madrid’s academy. He was nicknamed ‘the next Xabi Alonso’ for his style of play and Raul and Alvaro Arbeloa, the club’s youth coaches and two legendary former Madrid players, loved the kid.

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By now, Cucalon might have made his first-team debut for the Spanish giants under Carlo Ancelotti. Or he could be impressing for another European club, like his friend from the academy Nico Paz, the midfielder who is starring for Como in Italy’s Serie A.

Instead, he is trying to adapt to life after football, having been forced to retire last November, aged just 19, following a serious knee injury that needed five separate surgeries between 2022 and 2024.

“My dream now is to run for 10 minutes without pain,” he tells The Athletic.

This is the story of a rising star whose career in the game ended before it had really begun…

Cucalon joined Real Madrid’s academy in 2016 from fellow Spanish side Real Zaragoza, having started as a striker before moving to midfield. He was extremely shy at first, which meant he initially struggled at the youth players’ residence within Madrid’s training ground in the northern district of Valdebebas, spending many nights crying because he missed his family so much back in Zaragoza, which is around 330km (200 miles) north-east of the Spanish capital.

But he soon settled in and enjoyed being moulded by coaches including Raul, Arbeloa and Fran Beltran. He played around 200 official matches for Madrid’s youth teams and won tournaments including two youth Copas del Rey and a league title.

Cucalon being congratulated by Madrid great and now youth coach Raul (Real Madrid)

Everything changed on September 6, 2022. Playing away against Scotland’s Celtic in the UEFA Youth League, the under-19 equivalent of the Champions League, Cucalon suffered a total tear of the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee. Cucalon describes the warm-up and that match in the pouring Glasgow rain as one of the best performances of his life. Nothing could have prepared him for what happened next.

The Athletic: September 6, Scotland, UEFA Youth League… What’s the first thing that comes to your mind?

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Cucalon: A nightmare. It was quite complicated, as I was at my best, with Arbeloa as coach (of Madrid Under-19s), who gave me huge confidence. I have always been very humble, but at that moment I saw I could become a big name. And it’s hard to have your dream broken.

The Athletic: Have you watched back the moment where you were injured?

Cucalon: The injury was a bit taboo at home. I didn’t want to talk about it, not even during the recovery. I also stopped watching football. I did not see the move until my last operation, when I could see that I was not going to be able to play football, then I dared to watch it. I left it in the past. It was complicated to watch. I had it on my phone and I deleted it because I didn’t want to watch it anymore.

I remember defending at the end of the game, as we wanted to keep a clean sheet (Madrid won the game 6-0). I was trying to recover the ball by positioning my body so that the player goes on the outside, as we were always told, so that Celtic could not do so much damage inside. And he (the Celtic defender) came to face me and, without giving me time, he fell down.

I noticed a crunch and I felt like my knee wasn’t right, but I got up and started to walk. I had times in my life when I was sometimes afraid of the cruciate (ACL) injury, thinking that even during matches it could happen to me, but that season had changed my mind and I wasn’t afraid anymore.

I looked at the (team) doctor, Elena Isla — I’m very fond of her — and I saw that it didn’t look good. I could walk and I had no pain, but I felt like I didn’t have control of my knee.

I didn’t even want crutches. I tried to walk normally so that everything would be fine in my head. We went to watch the first-team match (that evening in the Champions League, also against Celtic, winning 3-0), (striker Karim) Benzema also got injured and I let him have my crutches. I said, “I don’t want them, let Benzema use them”. I was very well.

During the flight back to Madrid, while he was alone and listening to music to try and isolate himself, something special happened to Cucalon.

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Cucalon: I was expecting the worst and (first-team midfielder Toni) Kroos touched me on the shoulder. I was lucky that Arbeloa spoke to him about my case, and it was incredible. Kroos treated me as if we were friends. He told me to relax, that they (the first-team squad) were waiting for me and so on. It was a fundamental support that really changed my mind at that moment.

Kroos offered the injured Cucalon support on Madrid’s flight home from Glasgow (Marc Cucalon)

The Athletic: Why Kroos?

Cucalon: Whenever I talked to Arbeloa or to people, I always said I wanted to be Kroos — he was like my idol, my example to follow. And it was a surprise that I didn’t expect at all, he came up to me with a match shirt and it was incredible, thanks to Arbeloa.

I still remember when I was in the pool (at Madrid’s training complex) during the recovery, I crossed paths with Kroos and I did not even imagine that he would remember me. But whenever he saw me, he asked me how I was doing. It was as if he were a lifelong friend.

The whole club have been incredible — they have behaved as what they are, the best club in the world. From the directors, physios, coaches, doctors, surgeons… gardeners…

(Real Madrid)

The wait for further tests was long and difficult — “I couldn’t sleep at all that night: nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing,” says Cucalon — to the point that he ran for a few metres in his room at Valdebebas on the morning of those checks to try to reassure himself the injury was not as serious as he feared.

His family travelled down by train from Zaragoza the following day, having been warned by Cucalon about the injury. They had not anticipated how serious it might be when watching the game on TV.

Cucalon: They were with me all the time, and I still had a huge breakdown. And I also remember, right after the tests, I was crying with my parents and Raul (the youth coach and former Real striker) was there. He told me to be calm and said he had also suffered a partial rupture, that surgery was not always necessary. That helped me.

For a month, Cucalon did not leave the family’s house in Alfajarin, just outside Zaragoza — the time needed for his internal ligament to regenerate — and in the October he had surgery. The following day he returned to his hometown. That was when the real nightmare started.

Cucalon after the first surgery on his knee (Marc Cucalon)

Cucalon: It was horrifying. I began to feel an inexplicable pain — no matter how much I describe it to you, it is an understatement. I had a high fever, too. No pill relieved the pain. And I told my parents that we had to go to Madrid.

In Madrid, doctors examined his cartilage and found a bacteria called staphylococcus had developed, causing an infection.

Cucalon was hospitalised for a month — “the worst of my life, without a doubt” — given intravenous antibiotics and lost 10kg (22lb). “It made me feel sick even to look at myself in the mirror,” he says. Then he had two unplanned operations in the November to try to eliminate the bacteria.

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Cucalon: I turned 18 on November 16 and I had that date as a goal (to be out of hospital before his birthday). I had never imagined my 18th birthday like that, and it was painful. But I wanted to at least be at home with my family. We travelled on the 15th to Zaragoza and spent my birthday at home, the worst birthday of my life. I remember the whole family sitting there.

He began his treatment back at Valdebebas with the club’s physios and away from his loved ones. He says that was “very hard, I cried a lot in Valdebebas because I’ve been a family person since I was a child”.

Teachers, staff members and team-mates, especially his room-mate, the forward Alvaro Gines, were very supportive, with Cucalon unable to do anything on his own for months. At the time, his goal was not to play again but just to get rid of the pain, slowly regain his flexibility and prepare for the next operation.

His fourth surgery took place in February 2023. Madrid’s doctors inserted more than 100 stitches — “if you see the scar, you would freak out” — and he was not thinking beyond the possibility of being able to play with his friends again.

Cucalon: Then we had the last operation, in February 2024, which was a little bit bigger. They opened me from my thigh almost to my calf. The bacteria had gone and everything was less painful. In this operation, they even put screws in me to try to reach the maximum flexion to be able to walk or sit normally.

I started working with the physios at Valdebebas, again morning and afternoon, seven days a week. I remember that we would stay there chatting until the early hours.

We were gaining degrees of flexibility and we reached 90 degrees, which is the necessary amount for a normal life. I had spent a year on crutches, I even dreamt that I was with my brother in a shopping centre walking without crutches, so when I was able to just walk three steps it was one of the best things that has happened to me in my life. We all cried.

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The Athletic: When did you decide to retire?

Cucalon: I had it in my head for a long time, because you see that you are not advancing, but from there to take the step (of announcing it)…

I spoke with my representatives, (former Espanyol and Barcelona midfielder) Ivan de la Pena and Cristian Catena, who have been fundamental — along with my family, the greatest support I have ever had — and when you see that you can’t even play a ‘pachanga’ (kickabout)…

For a boy whose dream was to be a footballer, to quit at the age of 19 is very, very complicated, but with everything you’ve been through, you even feel proud to be able to quit football. I couldn’t do any more.

Cucalon with some of the trophies he won with Madrid’s academy teams (Real Madrid)

I decided on it after the (fifth) operation. I remember (Emilio) Butragueno (the former Madrid player and the club’s head of institutional relations) called me and gave me encouragement from him and Florentino (Perez, Madrid’s president). He said they were there for whatever I needed, that it had been a short career but they were very proud of me.

The Athletic: In your farewell letter, posted on Instagram, you said you had fought physically and mentally. Which part was harder?

Cucalon: My case is a bit more extreme because the pain is inexplicable, but the mind is very important — very, very important. If it were not for the psychological help that I have had from the club, the recovery would have cost me much more. I do not know what would have happened, because it was very, very hard, and now I feel much stronger.

The Athletic: What was the lowest point?

Cucalon: I imagined that I would never walk again in my life. In the hospital, there were horrible, horrible thoughts.

The message Cucalon posted on Instagram in November to announce his retirement, below, led to an outpouring of support from the world of football. It has been liked more than 250,000 times.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marc Cucalón Pina (@marc_cucalon6)

Cucalon: I didn’t expect that much of a reaction when I wrote the letter. We didn’t even imagine messages from the first-team players, from legends… The first thing I remember is comments from Arbeloa, Raul, then also via Instagram I remember that (former and current Madrid first-team players) Marcelo, (Aurelien) Tchouameni, (Thibaut) Courtois wrote to me.

Marcelo really stuck with me, because I remember training with him. It was incredible. I’m very fond of Marcelo because he has helped us academy players a lot and if I went to Valdebebas, he was always there.

Cucalon says he is ‘very fond’ of Marcelo (Marc Cucalon)

Now, Cucalon is looking to the future with optimism.

Football has become a fundamental part of his life again — he watches all the top leagues — and Madrid have told him their paths could meet again in the future. In the meantime, he is preparing himself for what comes next.

He would like to be a coach and is taking the necessary courses. He looks up to Arbeloa and Ancelotti but, unsurprisingly, his role model is the former Madrid, Liverpool and Spain midfielder and now Bayer Leverkusen head coach Alonso. As a teenager in Madrid’s academy, Cucalon would watch Alonso coaching the under-14 side at Valdebebas.

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“Who gave me the name, ‘The new Xabi Alonso’? I’m not sure,” says Cucalon. “Arbeloa was the one who told me to pay close attention to him and showed me videos of him.

“I remember I was with Arbeloa on the bus at a tournament and he showed me videos of him, his cuts of game-changing moves. In a tournament in Portugalete (a northern Spanish town), when we won the final against Barcelona, I remember that a lot of people came and the Xabi Alonso thing started, with people saying, ‘You’re going to be the next Xabi Alonso’.

“Arbeloa told me that Xabi had seen me play once and liked me, so I’ll stick with that.”

(Top photos: Marc Cucalon/Real Madrid)

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