Enzo Maresca (born 10 February 1980) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is currently the manager of club Manchester City.
Maresca began his professional career as a midfielder with West Bromwich Albion in 1998. He joined Juventus in 2000 and won Serie A in 2002, and went on loan to Bologna and Piacenza. After a brief stint with Fiorentina, Maresca joined Sevilla in 2005 and won the Copa del Rey, Supercopa de España and UEFA Super Cup once each, and the UEFA Cup twice. Maresca played for Olympiacos, Málaga and Sampdoria between 2009 and 2014 before signing with Palermo, where he won the Serie B title. He joined Hellas Verona in 2016 and retired in 2017. He represented Italy at youth level, including the Italy under-21 team, but was never capped at senior level.
Maresca began his coaching career as an assistant with Ascoli in 2017. In 2020, he joined Manchester City EDS, winning Premier League 2 in 2021. He began his senior coaching career with Parma in 2021, but was dismissed that same year and returned to Manchester City as an assistant in 2022. Maresca joined Leicester City as head coach in 2023 and won the EFL Championship in 2024. He signed with Chelsea that same year, where he won the UEFA Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025, but departed in 2026. That same year, it was announced that he would be the new manager for Manchester City after the former manager Pep Guardiola left.
Club career Early years Born in Pontecagnano Faiano, Province of Salerno, Maresca started playing football at the age of 11 with AC Milan and joined Cagliari after three years.
Maresca started his professional career with English club West Bromwich Albion, despite having "no grasp of the English language". He made his debut in a 2–0 home defeat against Bradford City on 20 September 1998, and played two incomplete seasons with the English club in the Football League First Division.
Juventus In January 2000, Maresca moved back to Italy and joined Juventus in a transfer worth £4.3 million, a club-record sale for Albion at the time. He played in one Serie A game before the end of the season.
For two of the following three seasons, Maresca was loaned to fellow league teams Bologna and Piacenza—a co-ownership deal in the latter case—scoring nine goals in the 2002–03 season but suffering team relegation. During the previous campaign, he notably netted an important equaliser in the Derby della Mole return leg, against neighbouring Torino; he attracted controversy, however, when he celebrated the goal by mimicking an earlier 'bull-horn' goal celebration by Torino's Marco Ferrante (the bull being a club symbol as it is Turin's coat of arms, and the side also being known in its contracted form as "Toro", bull in Italian). Juventus subsequently bought the remaining 50% of his rights for €2.6 million.Reports and financial statements at 30 June 2003 ; Juventus FC, 2003
Fiorentina In the summer of 2004, Fiorentina signed Maresca along with Fabrizio Miccoli and Giorgio Chiellini for €13 million, with Juventus holding half of the players' rights. He made his official debut on 12 September, playing 60 minutes in a 0–1 away defeat to Roma.
At the end of the season, with the Viola narrowly avoiding top-level relegation, Juventus bought back all three for around €6.7 million in a blind auction between the clubs.Reports and financial statements at 30 June 2005 ; Juventus FC, 2005 Maresca's cost was only about €7,000, but an additional €420,000 agent fee in order to keep the player was also involved.
Sevilla
On 16 July 2005, Maresca transferred to Sevilla for a fee of €2.5 million on a four-year contract.Maresca makes Sevilla move; UEFA.com, 16 July 2005 In his first season in La Liga, he played 29 games and scored eight goals. He played eleven games and scored three goals in the side's victorious campaign in the UEFA Cup. This included scoring twice in the final against Middlesbrough (4–0), in which he was also named man of the match.Middlesbrough 0–4 Sevilla; BBC Sport, 10 May 2006 Maresca donated €10,000 prize money to the San Juan de Dios hospital in Seville.Enzo Maresca fue elegido mejor jugador de la final (Enzo Maresca chosen final MVP); Marca, 10 May 2006 (in Spanish) He scored a late penalty, after coming off the bench, to seal a 3–0 win over Barcelona in 2006 UEFA Super Cup.
Maresca played 45 minutes in the 2007 UEFA Cup final at Hampden Park, as Sevilla successfully defended its European title against Espanyol.
Olympiacos On 13 July 2009, Maresca transferred to Greek club Olympiacos in a three-year deal. He scored in his Super League debut, a 2–0 win at AEL, and appeared regularly during the 2009–10 campaign as the Piraeus-based club finished in second position.
Málaga After terminating his contract with Olympiacos in August 2010, Maresca trained with former club Fiorentina in order to maintain match fitness. On 7 December, it was announced that he had been in talks with Málaga; after undergoing a medical examination, he signed with the Andalusians until June 2012.Maresca ficha por el Málaga (Maresca signs for Málaga); Diario AS, 8 December 2010 (in Spanish) Maresca made his league debut for his new team on 8 January 2011, playing 57 minutes in a 1–1 home draw against Athletic Bilbao. On 7 May, he contributed with one goal to the team's 3–0 success at Atlético Madrid.
Maresca appeared in 19 matches in the 2011–12 season (nine starts, two goals) as his team finished in fourth position and qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in its history.
Return to Italy On 2 July 2012, as his contract was about to expire, Maresca signed a new one-year contract with Málaga;Maresca renueva por una temporada con el Málaga (Maresca renews with Málaga for one season); Marca, 2 July 2012 (in Spanish) but then returned to Italy to join Sampdoria for free at the end of August. On 4 November, he scored his second goal of the season via a bicycle kick, in a 2–1 home defeat to Atalanta.
In January 2014, after having featured rarely in the first half of the new campaign, he agreed on a return to the Serie B and joined league leaders Palermo, who were in need of a playmaker. Maresca made 13 league appearances as Palermo finished the season as champions. In September, he underwent an operation due to acute appendicitis, and the following January, he signed a contract extension to keep him at the club until 2016.
On the final day of the 2015–16 Serie A season, Maresca scored in a 3–2 home win over Hellas Verona to help save his team from relegation. Ahead of the following season, now a free agent, he joined the relegated opposition. In January 2017, Maresca terminated his contract with Hellas, and retired from playing the following month, on his 37th birthday.
International career Maresca was selected by the Italy under-20 team for the 2000 Toulon Tournament, and finished runner-up with the under-18s in the 1999 UEFA European Championship.
He also represented the under-21 side for two years between 2000 and 2002, although he missed the 2002 UEFA European Championship tournament in Switzerland due to injury as the nation went on to reach the semi-finals of the tournament. He was never capped at full level.
Style of play Maresca was capable of playing anywhere in midfield; while he was often deployed as a deep-lying playmaker, due to his ability to orchestrate his team's offensive moves and create goalscoring opportunities, his preferred position was in a box-to-box role, either as a central or attacking midfielder. He also played as a mezzala. Emiliano Mondonico, Maresca's former manager at Fiorentina, described him as a "complete player".
Coaching career
Early career On 1 June 2017, Maresca was unveiled as part of the non-playing staff of Serie B club Ascoli for the upcoming season. As he did not have the required coaching badges by the time of the hiring, he was officially appointed as assistant to new head coach Fulvio Fiorin, formerly a youth manager and scout for Milan.
Maresca joined Sevilla as one of Vincenzo Montella’s assistant managers at the beginning of 2017 and remained in the role until Montella was sacked in April 2018.
Maresca started his career in England at West Ham United as one of Manuel Pellegrini’s assistant managers from July 2018 until December 2019. Maresca signed a three-year contract with the Hammers in June 2018 after arriving from Sevilla at Pellegrini’s request. However, he left West Ham United after Pellegrini was dismissed, despite being offered the opportunity to remain under David Moyes.
In August 2020, Maresca was hired by Manchester City as manager of their Elite Development Squad. He won the Premier League 2 title in his only season in charge of the Elite Development Squad.
On 27 May 2021, Maresca was hired as the new head coach of Parma, who played in Serie B in the 2021–22 season. Maresca failed in leading Parma into the promotion spots, being eventually dismissed on 23 November 2021.
In June 2022, Maresca returned to Manchester City as one of Pep Guardiola's assistant managers, replacing Juanma Lillo, who became manager of Al-Sadd.
Leicester City
On 16 June 2023, Maresca was appointed manager of Championship club Leicester City, having signed a three-year contract with the newly relegated English club. He spent his first two months living at the club's training base.
His first game in charge was an M69 derby on 6 August against Coventry City, ending with a 2–1 victory for Leicester. After starting the season with a 100% record in their first four matches in the Championship, Maresca was named the EFL Championship Manager of the Month in August. In October, he won the award for a second time, after leading Leicester to another perfect record, getting six wins and 15 goals from six matches. In December, he won the award for the third time, after leading Leicester to end the calendar year at the top of the league, getting six wins and 18 goals from seven matches. His Leicester side secured promotion back to the Premier League on 26 April 2024, becoming Championship champions on 29 April following a 3–0 away victory over Preston North End. He was awarded with another EFL Manager of the Month in April, his fourth in the season, for collecting 15 points in seven games.
Chelsea On 3 June 2024, Premier League club Chelsea announced that Maresca would be joining as head coach on 1 July, signing a five-year deal with an option to extend for a further year.
Maresca's first game in charge, on 18 August, ended in a 2–0 home defeat to champions Manchester City. A week later, he achieved his first Premier League win as Chelsea manager by beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 6–2, including a hat-trick from Noni Madueke. Three consecutive wins, over Bournemouth, West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion, led to the best start in a Premier League season by the club since 2021 and Maresca was named Premier League Manager of the Month. By December, Chelsea were seen as potential title contenders, which Maresca played down. In the end, Maresca led Chelsea to a fourth place finish, the first time that the club qualified for the UEFA Champions League since the 2021–22 season under Thomas Tuchel.
On 28 May 2025, Maresca won his first trophy as the Chelsea manager by winning the UEFA Conference League after beating Real Betis 4–1 in the final, which meant that Chelsea became the only team to win all three of the current main UEFA competitions. On 13 July, he guided his team to victory in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, the first edition of the expanded competition, with a 3–0 win over the recently crowned Champions League winners, Paris Saint-Germain, in the final.