Marc Cucurella’s eldest son, Mateo, was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. The first signs came much earlier: when Mateo was a baby, he would flap his hands when listening to music, and at school he was always seen alone while the other children played in groups.
That image—the child apart from the rest—deeply affected Cucurella. So much so that he now wears his hair long because of him: so that, if one day Mateo loses sight of him in the crowd at a stadium, he can at least recognize him by his hair.
The footballer has said it plainly in several interviews: he would trade all his money and success to see his son healthy. You can have titles, multimillion-dollar contracts and your country’s jersey. But there is only one thing Cucurella would put above all that, and its name is Mateo.
