Horsham postman thrilled to wear Marc Cucurella’s World Cup medal following Spain's victory over Argentina

Gary Speller, 61, who lives in Horsham, shared photos on Facebook showing him with Marc Cucurella, 28, who also lives in the area.

In one of the photos Gary, who has been a postman for 30 years, is pictured with Marc’s medal around his neck.

Marc, who left Chelsea for Real Madrid in June, played for Spain in this year’s World Cup when the team beat Argentina 1-0 in the final. He has lived in Sussex since he moved to Brighton and Hove Albion in 2021 and has continued to live in the county after moving to Chelsea in 2022.

Gary said: “I’ve been his postman for the last two years.”

On Friday, July 31, Gary explained that he was chatting to Marc and asked him about the World Cup and signing to Real Madrid.

Gary said: “I said ‘congratulations on winning the World Cup, the best team won etc’.”

He said: “I thought I would be cheeky and ask if I could see the medal – I didn’t really expect him to agree.”

But Marc said yes and handed the medal to him. Gary said: “The first thing I thought was ‘crikey, that’s heavy!’ I was looking at it and turned it over and he said to me ‘why don’t you put it on?’. I said ‘are you sure?’”

Gary could not believe it but Marc said ‘yes’ and Gary got to wear the medal for a photo. He thought: “Crikey! That’s a hell of a gesture.”

Gary said it felt ‘brilliant’ wear the medal, adding: “I used to play park football back in the day and won a few medals but nothing like that.”

He said he wished Marc good luck in the rest of his career and went away hardly believing what had happened.

Gary explained that, before Marc moved to the area, he had never met a professional player before, and he took his first picture with Marc not long after he moved to the West Sussex town. He also said he came to treat Marc and his family like all of his other customers.

Although Gary said: “I did ask for a signed picture so I could give to my grandson.” He added: “When it was my grandson’s birthday in November I asked him if he could do a video birthday greeting for him and he was quite happy to do that for my grandson who was over the moon with it.”

Gary said: “On the occasions I have seen him (Marc) he’s always been very polite, very down-to-earth and has always said ‘hello, how are you?’”

Gary, who is an Arsenal fan, said: “Even when I’ve taken the mickey out of him a bit by saying ‘we beat you yesterday’ (when Marc played for Chelsea), he’s always smiled and said congratulations and everything. The time when they played Barcelona in the Champions League, I said ‘well played, you were the best player on the pitch’ and he said ‘oh, thank you very much for that’.”

He said: “He’s a genuinely nice guy.”