Enzo Maresca: The European odyssey that created Manchester City’s new manager | OneFootball

Working as a ballboy for AC Milan in 1991, an 11-year-old Enzo Maresca watched the action unfold on the pitch at the San Siro for many years while starting in the club’s youth system. 

Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi – who combined to play over 1,600 times for Rossoneri – guarded the defence, while Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten created history in midfield and attack. 

It was, and still stands as, one of the greatest teams to ever grace the beautiful game; one that won four Serie A titles, a UEFA Champions League, three UEFA Super Cups, one Intercontinental Cup, and three Supercoppa Italiana titles under Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello. 

“I was a ballboy at that time. With Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard – the three Dutch players – AC Milan was a fantastic team. Probably (in) Italy, in terms of clubs, (they) were the best (in the) country at that moment,” Maresca said two years ago. 

Watching the world’s best often leaves the majority of people starstruck, but even after witnessing Capello’s Milan side beat Barcelona, managed by the late, great Johan Cruyff in the 1994 European Cup Final, Maresca used his experience at the time to fuel an impressive playing career. 

Just over a week ago, Manchester City appointed the 46-year-old as Pep Guardiola’s long-awaited successor and the new manager of the club that is looking forward nervously to a completely new era for a lot of supporters.

Guardiola won 20 trophies during his decade at the Etihad Stadium and changed the shape of the English game, but there is hope and evidence that helps Maresca feel much more comfortable at the helm, away from his time with the City Academy and Elite Development Squad (EDS) just a few years ago.

Maresca has experienced an odyssey in European football, playing in Greece, Spain, Italy, and England. And all of his tactical know-hows have transpired enough success to warrant one of the greatest jobs in football management.

After seven years in Milan and Cagliari’s academies, he made the jump to professional football, which started at the Hawthorns when West Bromwich Albion were fighting for a mid-table place in the second division. Maresca, in his late teens, became pals with Graham Potter, the current Sweden manager. 

“I remember sharing lifts to training with Graham. We played together, we lived very close, so sometimes we travelled together in the car to the training ground,” Maresca said in conversation with Manchester City’s media team.

“I still receive cards from West Brom fans. That was, for me, a big thing. But I think in these terms, English fans in general, they recognise a lot even through the years. They remember you.”

Even though his two-year spell at the club featured little fortune, the growth he acquired as a person and professional was paramount in the continuity of a career that, really, was only getting started. Maresca shaped himself into a highly technical and tactical midfielder, whose main strengths were his vision, passing ability and chance creation. In fact, his chance creation was key in his next move: Juventus. 

Leaving West Brom was tough for Maresca, but his return to Italy was one that handed the EFL Championship club a club-record sale of £4.3 million. For two of the following three seasons, it was about experience and minutes, and so loan deals to Bologna and Piacenza ensued. 

There wasn’t much progress to notice in this period of his career, especially during a timeframe where legendary figures such as Alessandro Del Piero and Pavel Nedved dominated the Italian top-flight, yet a moment of controversy increased his media attention and the blood pressure of Torino fans in the Derby della Mole when he was at Juventus. 

As Maresca rose to a beautiful cross from the right, he headed from 18 yards and placed the ball into the net well for one of the finest finishes of his career to that day. As he ran off, he held his index fingers to his head to mimic a bull’s horns and did so directly at the rival supporters to mock Torino forward Marco Ferrante, who had performed the celebration earlier in the game. 

Maresca’s playing career showed many signs of advancement and few setbacks, though he experienced the ultimate rollercoaster in the 2000-01 season, when Juventus missed out on the title on goal difference before winning in similar circumstances the following campaign. 

“In terms of motivation and leadership, Marcello Lippi, in my experience, was number one. Only listening, talking, the motivation was top. And in terms of leadership as well. It was great to work with him,” Maresca said in 2021.

In 2005, Maresca decided to venture out once again, this time to Spain, where he joined Sevilla and, during his first season in La Liga, he played 29 games, scoring eight goals. 

The consensus in some quarters is that this was Maresca’s peak. Not only did the Italian midfielder create, assist, and score on the pitch, but he won the hearts of many off it as well. When Sevilla beat Middlesbrough 3-0 in the 2005-06 UEFA Cup Final, Maresca donated €10,000 to the San Juan de Dios hospital following his man-of-the-match performance.

A year later, Maresca scored to seal a 3-0 win over Barcelona in the UEFA Super Cup and played 45 minutes in the 2007 UEFA Cup Final at Hampden Park. Sevilla defended their title against Espanyol as Maresca’s last three years in Spain saw him play an average of 22 league matches per season. 

His influence in many teams at the backend of his career inevitably weakened, but Maresca learned key lessons in tactics and coaching philosophy across several different countries, starting in Greece with Olympiacos. 

Maresca would have been well-versed in the compact 4-4-2 or defensive 4-5-1 shapes that posed strong defensive partnerships, physical midfielders and a heavy reliance on counter-attacks. 

Tactics were very similar in Spain, specifically during Maresca’s season at Malaga in the 2011-12 campaign. Spanish football was centred around positional fluidity, midfield dominance and the invention of a free-roaming attack: a set of tactics that is partly used nowadays in Europe’s major leagues.

Maresca always took a liking to Spanish football. He was at his best at Sevilla five or six years before his spell at Malaga, but the best of his contributions at the rear of his playing days came when he played a small part in the club’s first-ever qualification to the UEFA Champions League.

During that season, Lionel Messi contributed to 105 goals in 60 games – and scored 50 times in 37 La Liga matches at a time in his career when he was on a path to becoming the greatest ever. 

When Maresca returned to Italy in 2012, he enjoyed three spells in five years with Sampdoria, Palermo, and Hellas Verona before retiring on his 37th birthday. 

Becoming the next City manager offers one of the toughest challenges in world football: replacing the greatest to ever do it. But it is these events, this odyssey, that have given Maresca so much as a player and coach.

He will undoubtedly bring his knowledge to City with the full intention of setting a new precedent at the club, and his time as a player has shaped the way he sees football from the dugout. His success as a coach has already sparked merited excitement, and his playing days are foundational in his future success for City.