Who is Enzo Maresca? Pep Guardiola’s replacement at Manchester City
The Italian guided Chelsea to the Club World Cup title last summer and, in 2022, served as one of Guardiola’s assistant managers at City.
Manchester City has not made it official, but the club already knows that Pep Guardiola will not continue next season. His departure comes after a historic run that yielded six Premier League titles, a Champions League trophy, three FA Cups, five Carabao Cups, and three Community Shields.
Enzo Maresca will have a tough time trying to emulate Pep’s legendary City era.
Maresca’s rollercoster at Chelsea
The Italian was hired by Chelsea after the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino and took the helm of the Blues at the start of the 2024 season.
Maresca led a resurgence at the club, winning the Conference League and the inaugural Club World Cup. At the start of the 2025 season, the Blues were playing well and enjoyed a fantastic start to the Champions League league phase, which included a 3-0 win over Barcelona at Stamford Bridge.
Things went south in West London following that win over the Blaugrana, however, as Maresca’s side won just one of their next seven domestic league matches. That was enough for the board to cut ties with Maresca, and Rosenior was entrusted to straighten the ship.
Maresca’s Man City past and playing career
As a manager, he began coaching for the Manchester City youth team in 2020 before moving to Parma for a short while. However, he didn’t last long in the job and was quickly dismissed.
In June 2022, Maresca returned to Manchester City as one of Pep Guardiola’s assistant managers, replacing the outgoing Juanma Lillo, who became manager of Al-Sadd. It was there where Leicester City showed an interest and brought in the Italian after confirming their relegation to England’s second tier. Now, it seems that another club in blue in the Premier League is ready to give him a shot at success.
The 46 year old was born in southwest Italy, where he began playing for the AC Milan youth academy before moving to Cagliari’s setup. Curiously, he made his senior debut for West Bromwich Albion in England in 1998 before moving back to Italy with Juventus. From there, he moved around Europe, playing for teams such as Fiorentina, Sevilla, and Olympiacos, before hanging up his boots in 2017 after a spell with Hellas Verona.
What was Maresca’s record at Leicester City?
The Italian joined the Championship side at the start of the season 2023 season after leaving his role as assistant manager under Guardiola at Manchester City. In his first year as a head coach, Maresca won the English second division title with 97 points, just one ahead of second-place Ipswich Town, and earned automatic promotion to the Premier League.
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During the stellar bounce back season, Maresca was named Championship Manager of the Month on four separate occasions.
The coach got off to a flying start in the Championship with his new side, dropping points in just one of his first 13 games in what is a notoriously difficult 46 game season. His patient style of play dominated other sides in the league; with Leicester keeping the ball for large swathes of time, teams quickly became worn out, allowing Leicester to score plenty of goals late in matches as opponents’ energy levels dipped.