Six years after arriving at Chelsea from Fiorentina with little to no expectations to the kind of player he would become, Marcos Alonso leaves Chelsea with over 200 appearances, 6 trophies (at least one of each except for a League Cup), and even more notably, 29 goals. (Among the current squad, only Mason Mount has more career goals for the club.)
The 31-year-old now returns to play in his native Spain for the first time since leaving the Real Madrid academy in 2010, joining Barcelona on a multi-year contract, a fitting bookend. Marcos’s father, (also named) Marcos, played for Barcelona in the ‘80s. Marcos’s grandfather, Marquitos, was a key player for Real Madrid in the late ‘50s.
Alonso leaves Chelsea as part of the Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang deal, alongside a €12m “adjustment” from the Blues. The accountants have recorded this portion as a “free transfer” for Barcelona after Alonso exited his Chelsea contract “by mutual consent”.
While no player is perfect, and Alonso certainly was not, he was a key part of our last Premier League title and showed again under Tuchel that as a left wing-back, few could do what he could. That he saved some of his best games for Spurs also didn’t hurt.
Both Marc Cucurella and Ben Chilwell have big shoes to fill, especially when it comes to consistent attacking contributions and technically perfect volleys from the left wing-back position.
Source: Chelsea FC
