Who is Enzo Maresca? Coaching record, titles won and why Man City are picking Pep Guardiola's former assistant

Manchester City's end-of-season 'afterparty' was an evening of high emotion at the Co-op Live arena on Monday.

Ostensibly to celebrate the achievements of the club's FA Youth Cup conquerors, Women's Super League champions and men's Carabao and FA Cup winners, the event became a farewell party for Pep Guardiola, after the game-changing tactician announced he would step down to end a decorated decade at the Etihad Stadium.

Tears were shed by fans and Guardiola himself at both Sunday's final Premier League game of the season against Aston Villa and Monday's festivities, which also included a trophy parade from the centre of Manchester to the Etihad Campus.

But Guardiola was not at the top of the running order. After an array of glowing tributes — including one from Michael Jordan — on the arena screens, the focus turned to the players who will attempt to carry on the story at City after this chapter of unprecedented success closes.

Good craic, aye pic.twitter.com/tJM9rv3LRw

Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki, signed in January and last summer respectively, led the team onto the stage and were serenaded by fans. Long-serving captain Bernardo Silva and defender John Stones also bade their farewell as Guardiola looked on quietly and removed atop the now largely deserted parade bus.

It sent a clear message that the show must go on with Cherki, Semenyo and other main characters alongside Erling Haaland, who is now a relative veteran in the playing group. But that squad will need a leader. In an echo of the building speculation regarding Guardiola's departure over recent weeks, the identity of his successor has become something of an open secret.

MORE: For the first time, the result did not matter to Pep Guardiola and Man City's eternal heroes

Who is Enzo Maresca? Italian coach replacing Pep Guardiola at Man City

Former Chelsea and Leicester City manager Enzo Maresca is widely speculated to be the man stepping into Guardiola's considerable shoes. He is expected to sign a three-year contract at Manchester City.

The 44-year-old Italian enjoyed a nomadic playing career as an attacking midfielder when he represented the likes of West Brom, Juventus, Sevilla, Malaga and Palermo.

As a coach, Maresca began to garner wider attention during his time in charge of Manchester City's Elite Development Squad. This work earned him the top job at Serie B club Parma for the 2021/22 season, but he was sacked after just 14 games in charge.

Maresca returned to Manchester and served as one of Guardiola's assistants during City's 2022/23 treble-winning campaign. After that, Leicester City came calling, having identified him as the man to lead them to instant promotion following their relegation from the Premier League that year.

Enzo Maresca titles, trophies won

Maresca fulfilled the brief at Leicester, leading them to the promotion from the Championship as league winners. This built upon his growing reputation in football circles following his work at City, and Chelsea appointed him as Mauricio Pochettino's successor at Stamford Bridge for the 2024/25 campaign.

Chelsea's youthful and ever-changing squad proved difficult for Maresca to grapple with, but he secured a return to the Champions League with a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest on the final day of the Premier League season.

The following midweek, the Blues thrashed Real Betis 4-1 to win the Conference League — UEFA's third-tier continental club competition — and this began a golden summer for the club. 

Chelsea entered the expanded FIFA Club World Cup by virtue of their 2021 Champions League final win over Man City, with Reece James as the only surviving squad member from Thomas Tuchel's Porto heroes. A group-stage defeat to Flamengo marked a rough start, but Chelsea then plotted a path to the final, where a Cole Palmer brace helped them to a shock 3-0 win over Luis Enrique's imperious Paris Saint-Germain.

Maresca won deserved plaudits for that accomplishment, and his star continued to rise during the early stages of the 2025/26 season, with faint suggestions that Chelsea might be able to sustain a title challenge. However, their form collapsed and Maresca clashed publicly with both the club's hierarchy and medical department, amid the first strains of speculation that he was part of City's Guardiola succession planning.

Why Manchester City picked Enzo Maresca to replace Pep Guardiola

Chelsea's shambolic second half to this season after Maresca was sacked on New Year's Day, and Leicester's back-to-back relegations, mean the jobs he did at both clubs have aged well. Nevertheless, his work at City as both a Premier League 2 champion with the EDS squad in 2020/21 and as one of Guardiola's treble-winning assistants is why he is seen as a standout candidate for the Etihad Stadium hotseat.

When asked last week about any advice for his successor (not naming Maresca gave him a piece of press-conference deception to keep up right until the end), Guardiola reiterated that the new manager must "be themselves". Previously, when discussing his influence on the wider game and a growing number of coaching disciples, Guardiola dismissed "copy-paste" coaching as a fast track to failure. Maresca himself was the subject of such criticism at points of his largely commendable Leicester and Chelsea tenures.

He should find City's fanbase relatively more amiable to a methodical take on high-possession, position play, although it was notable how quickly a more direct approach following the appointment of Pep Lijnders as Guardiola's No. 2 at the start of this season was welcomed by supporters. Matchgoing City fans remain, predominantly, British football fans. Guardiola is a genius, but he could never unwire all of that learned behaviour.

During his final week in the job, Guardiola dismissed the notion that he can be to City what Johan Cruyff was to Ajax and Barcelona. The modesty when asked to measure himself against his late, great mentor was understandable, but City are and will remain a club in Guardiola's image to a large extent. It would be foolish to try to change too much when his departure on its own threatens a seismic impact. Maresca being a man who knows exactly how the club operates in all departments behind the scenes gives him a pragmatic edge over any truly external candidate. City pride themselves in being best-in-class off the field, and it will be hoped this soothes the spikiness Maresca showed during his denouement at a far more chaotic Chelsea.

The Italian will still get the chance to shape his own vision, especially after City confirmed the departures of Lijnders, Kolo Touro and goalkeeping coach Xabi Mancisidor. His differences from Guardiola are also likely to appeal to players, at least in the short term.

Guardiola repeatedly praising players past and present as wonderful "human beings" during his farewells has carried an undercurrent of sadness. After his four years at Barcelona, the Catalan decided it would be better to have a degree of separation between himself and those playing under him. His results at Bayern Munich and City leave no doubt regarding the effectiveness of this as a winning strategy. But the collateral on several occasions has been Guardiola's personal relationship with players of whom he is really very fond.

In effect, he has appeared to sacrifice being liked for the greater good of serial winning. Filling that void was his rolling cast of assistants, from Mikel Arteta through to Lijnders and Toure, who go to be the good cops to Guardiola's frosty lieutenant. Maresca was certainly very popular with the treble-winning squad, and his alliance with Haaland, Ruben Dias, Rodri — the remaining on-field leaders from that campaign — is a built-in positive when it comes to getting his tenure off the ground. In the months after this Chelsea exit, players such as Enzo Fernandez have also spoken warmly of him.

Bayern Munich's players enjoyed a decompression when Carlo Ancelotti replaced Guardiola in Bavaria in 2014 before some senior players feared things had gone too far the other way and began lobbying for extra training sessions. Maresca shares the distinction of being a tactics and details obsessive with Guardiola, which should give him the chops to avoid a similar slide. Set-pieces might also get a little more attention: the jibes about Arsenal being Set Piece F.C. this season were all well and good, but City's contrasting lack of effectiveness from dead-ball situations was a factor in giving Arteta's men the last laugh.

MORE: The story of Pep Guardiola's 10 years at Man City in 10 matches

What Enzo Maresca must fix first at Man City

Donnarumma vs. Trafford debate gets a second act

A divisive issue among the City fanbase this season has been the identity of the team's No. 1 goalkeeper.

City's swoop to secure Gianluigi Donnarumma to replace the outgoing Ederson at the end of last summer's transfer window unquestionably soured Trafford's return to his boyhood club. Donnarumma took the first-choice spot and was largely an impressive and imposing presence. However, there were mistakes in key Premier League and Champions League games against West Ham, Real Madrid and Everton, while Trafford performed with distinction as City's cup goalkeeper. It's a skewed sample size, but City won 2/2 of the tournaments where Trafford was first choice and 0/2 with Donnarumma between the posts.

Guardiola had clearly made up his mind on this one, and you'd expect Maresca to continue with his giant compatriot as the last line of defence. However, Trafford played in Maresca's triumphant 2020/21 EDS side, and his superior footwork to Donnarumma's will get a fresh appraisal. What is certain is that one of these elite-level goalkeepers will move on this summer. 

Defensive shape and depth

Another tick against Maresca's name is the fact he is thought to have been a key architect of the defining tactical tweak of the treble run, when Guardiola switched to a back four that often featured four centre-backs — Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias, John Stones and Nathan Ake — and allowed Stones to roam into midfield.

This season, Guardiola has reverted to attack-minded full-backs in the form of Rayan Ait-Nouri and converted midfielders Matheus Nunes and Nico O'Reilly. Dias, Ake, Josko Gvardiol, Marc Guehi, Abdukodir Khusanov and returning Girona loanee Vitor Reis mean Maresca has enviable depth when it comes to natural central defenders.

A reconfiguration of the treble back four with Khusanov, Dias, Guehi and Gvardiol would be a formidable proposition, with the added bonus of freeing up the prodigiously talented O'Reilly to return to midfield. One thing for certain is that, aside from a natural right-back, this area of the squad is not in need of transfer-market attention.

Solving the central midfield talent drain

Bernardo Silva's emotional departure after nine years at the club comes a year on from Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne waving goodbye. Rodri is the last man standing from the treble midfield and purportedly has Real Madrid sniffing around as he enters the final 12 months of his contract.

Links to Nottingham Forest's Elliot Anderson and Maresca's old Chelsea skipper Frnandez suggest a midfield refit is on the cards, but where would this leave Tijjani Reijnders and Nico Gonzalez, who have both underwhelmed since arriving at no little expense in 2025? Mateo Kovacic is a more obvious candidate for the exit door after an injury-ruined 2025/26, although both O'Reilly and Phil Foden might be candidates for being redeployed in the post-Bernardo era.

Maresca is certainly going to have to be very clear-minded to make this City midfield make sense. A romantic return to the first-team picture for Jack Grealish, who produced his best form last time Maresca was in the building, is not realistically on the cards.

Getting more from Haaland

It feels a ridiculous thing to say after he just collected a third Premier League Golden Boot in four seasons, but should Manchester City be expecting more from Erling Haaland? A gargantuan haul of 112 goals in 132 Premier League appearances has come despite the fact the Norwegian superstar has suffered mid-season form slumps in each of his four years in England.

His on-field relationship with Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku blossomed during the final few months of this season. Antoine Semenyo also lessened the goal-scoring burden on Haaland after his mid-season arrival from Bournemouth, certainly more convincingly than Omar Marmoush ever has.

Unless he significantly catches Maresca's eye, it feels reasonable to assume Marmoush — a player on big wages who could command a significant fee — will be moved on. Semenyo's success and Maresca's general preference for wide wingers (Marmoush is more comfortable moving in, close to the striker off the left flank) don't feel like an ideal combination of circumstances for the Egypt international.

Few City fans would complain if Tottenham Hotspur's reportedly renewed interest in Savinho led to the talented but frustrating Brazil winger moving on, but he is still only 22 and might be more of a Maresca type.