6 min readNew YorkJul 3, 2026 06:55 AM IST The hair, Marc Cucurella says, is sacred. But he promises he will go bald if Spain lifts the World Cup. But when the moment arrives, the larrikin in him could deny, “Did I say that really?” He had made the promise before. A Barcelona product, as recently as April, he claimed he would rather chop the locks he had been nourishing for over a decade than join Real Madrid. Come May, he signed a 60-million pound contract to join the Spanish powerhouse. “Hair is not essential to my personality, it is my personality,” he told Spanish outlet Marca. The springy curls, girdled by a hairband that is about to burst, is part of what has made him a cult figure in Spain and England, where he played for five years. The full-back, who assisted two goals and saw a goal he scored chalked off in Spain’s dismembering of Austria, is the European champions’ wind-up merchant. The provocateur, his friends call him. When his goal was ruled …