“Excuse me? Are you going to tattoo Luis de la Fuente’s face?”, Juanma Castaño asked Marc Cucurella (Alella, 28 years old) last June, laughing, surprised by the public promise the Catalan footballer had just made if the Spanish national team won the 2026 World Cup. “I think it’s fine, I think it’s a good memory,” he confirmed amused. Spain was crowned champion on July 19 and Cucurella took less than 10 days to keep his word. “Promise fulfilled,” he announced on his Instagram profile, with 7.7 million followers, along with several images of the process showing a tattoo artist permanently engraving on the skin of the new Real Madrid player the bust of the Spanish coach holding the World Cup. “Historic,” commented teammates like Mikel Merino or Luis Olmo. “You’re a show,” wrote Pedro Porro.
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Cucurella’s promise had generated a lot of expectation, but it was not the only one fulfilled in recent days. Gavi (Los Palacios y Villafranca, 22 years old) warned that he would totally change his look if they won the World Cup, and this Thursday, August 6, he also went to Instagram — where he is followed by 21.1 million people — to show that he is “a man of his word,” as he himself wrote in the post featuring two selfies. In them, the Barcelona midfielder shows off his new hair color: fuchsia pink.
His hairdresser, Raúl Sanromá, also shared a video of the cutting, bleaching, and dyeing process of the footballer’s hair. “A word is a word, a promise is a debt,” the stylist wrote in a post that athletes like Neymar or Eric Garcia reacted to.
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Fans of the Spanish national team now wonder who will be the next player to keep his word. Álex Baena (Roquetas de Mar, 25 years old) or Borja Iglesias (Santiago de Compostela, 33 years old), for example, also committed to tattooing De la Fuente’s face if Spain won the competition. “I’m in for Cucurella’s proposal: I have no problem getting it if we are champions… if I find a good model,” promised Iglesias. Baena, for his part, even indicated the part of the body where it would go: his left leg, which is where he tattoos “football things.”
David Raya (Barcelona, 30 years old) also joined the tattoo proposal, but simply something related to the World Cup. “My wife told me not to even think about tattooing the mister’s face,” he said in an interview with ESPN.
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“I promise that if I win the World Cup I will grow a beard and mustache for three weeks,” said Lamine Yamal (Esplugues de Llobregat, 19 years old) in early June in one of the videos on his YouTube channel, where he has almost 3.8 million followers. He also promised his audience that, if they were winners, he would raffle 100 Beats headphones. However, the latest posts from the Catalan on social media do not yet show any sign of this aesthetic change, and he looks as clean-shaven as ever.
Others who also committed to changing their look are Pedri (Tegueste, 23 years old) and Ferran Torres (Foios, 26 years old). Thanks to the winning goal scored by the latter, Pedri should dye his hair white or blonde, while Ferran would have to shave his head completely. “Weren’t you going to shave your head?” Princess Leonor asked him with a smile during the players’ reception at the Zarzuela Palace after returning with the World Cup from the United States. “No, no,” he shyly replied to the heir to the Crown.
The most open proposal was that of Fabián Ruiz (Los Palacios y Villafranca, 30 years old). The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder left his promise in the hands of the fans and assured that he would do whatever they decided if the Spanish national team managed to win the title. “Whatever you tell me, I’ll do it,” he promised during an interview with Teledeporte. In most comments, users asked him to return to Betis if he won.
