About

Marc Cucurella Cat, also known simply as the Cucurella Cat Meme, is a viral video and reaction image of a tabby cat sitting on a windowsill wearing a large black curly wig, resembling Spanish professional footballer and soccer star Marc Cucurella Saseta, who plays for the La Liga club Real Madrid and Spain's men's national team. The original video was posted to TikTok by user welcometolevush in early July 2025, garnering virality over the following years.

During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the Cucurella Cat meme notably went viral across the web amid Cucurella and Spain's victory in the tournament, becoming widely reposted and covered in the media. Google also added an Easter egg for the meme following the finale in mid-July 2026 when searching Marc Cucurella's name, with the cat meme appearing at the bottom waving a Spanish flag.

Origin

The original video of the cat wearing the wig was posted as a POV meme on July 5th, 2025, by TikToker^[1] welcometolevusch, which included the caption, "POV: Your cat is a Cucurella Fan." The video garnered over 17.7 million views, 1.9 million likes and 13,800 comments in a year.

Two days later, on July 7th, TikTok^[2] user welcometolevusch then shared a behind-the-scenes video of them making the original video with their cat, receiving over 263,900 likes and 2,000 comments in a year.

On July 11th, 2025, TikToker^[3] welcometolevusch uploaded another video of their cat in the wig with the caption, "#Cucurellacatforever," garnering over 339,700 likes and 1,880 comments in a year.

Following the virality of their meme, the TikToker then created the dedicated cucurellacat TikTok^[4] account centered around the meme and their cats, accumulating roughly 230 followers and 3,300 likes by late July 2026.

Spread

Over the following year, the Cucurella Cat meme continued to spread and garner virality as it was reposted and edited into different memes and GIFs, with many using the original as an exploitable format and adding different jerseys or other elements to the image.

On July 23rd, 2025, the site Tribuna^[5] published an article on the initial virality of the meme and its use by fellow footballer Enzo Fernandez, titled "Enzo Fernandez trolls Marc Cucurella on Instagram with hilarious Cat Meme reference."

During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the meme saw a significant resurgence and wave of popularity online as Spain and Marc Cucurella excelled and eventually won the tournament, with the meme reaching mainstream audiences and becoming widely discussed on social media.

Numerous GIF variants of the meme were shared online amid the World Cup in mid-2026.

For instance, on June 15th, 2026, GIPHY^[6] user Mar7plus uploaded a GIF of the meme depicting the cat in Real Madrid gear, garnering over 352.7 million views in just over a month.

On July 18th, GIPHY^[7] user Mar7plus posted another GIF editing a clip of Cucurella kissing and lifting the cat version of himself into the air, which received over 19.6 million views in four days.

Also on July 18th, 2026, Google Search added an Easter egg when searching Marc Cucurella's name, depicting the cat meme appearing and waving Spain's flag.

That same day, the tsn_official Threads^[8] account posted about the Easter egg animation, garnering over 2,300 likes, 110 reposts and 120 shares in four days.

Later on July 18th, Instagram^[9] user fboy posted an AI-generated edit of the format, creating a caption meme that read, "The first thing Messi will see when he grabs the ball," ahead of the final match between Argentina and Spain. The meme received over 187,000 likes in four days.

On July 21st, 2026, Redditor emiledurkheim2 reposted the original video from the TikTok account of the meme to the /r/soccercirclejerk^[10] subreddit, titled "ORIGINAL CUCURELLA CAT VIDEO," receiving roughly 5,900 upvotes and 70 comments in a day.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References