By Marta Elena Casanova
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From Campania’s provinces to the Chelsea bench
There’s a name that links Italy’s provincial football to the European nights of Stamford Bridge. That name is Enzo Maresca — born in 1980 in Pontecagnano Faiano, near Salerno — now considered one of the brightest Italian coaches abroad. A gifted former midfielder for Juventus, Fiorentina, Sevilla and Sampdoria, Maresca has followed a path that’s anything but linear yet deeply coherent: built on study, vision, and the calm assurance of someone who knows exactly where he’s headed.
The year 2025 marks his definitive breakthrough. Just days ago, Enzo Maresca was named “Best Italian Coach Abroad” at the Manlio Scopigno and Felice Pulici Awards, held at the Italian Olympic Committee’s Hall of Honour. It’s an award that goes beyond results, recognizing a modern manager who blends the Italian school of tactics with an English mindset. “I’m honoured,” he said in a video message, “and I hope to continue representing our football well beyond Italy’s borders.”
From Manchester City to triumph with Leicester
Enzo Maresca’s coaching career began far from the spotlight. After retiring in 2017, he worked as a technical assistant between Ascoli and Sevilla before joining Manchester City in 2020, where he led the Under-23 team to the Premier League 2 title. It was there that his football philosophy took shape: patient possession, building from the back, high pressing and a focus on youth. Pep Guardiola, his mentor, once described it as “typically Italian in its attention to detail, but English in its vertical intent.”
The first real managerial opportunity for Enzo Maresca came in 2021 with Parma in Serie B. The experience was short-lived — results didn’t arrive, and the club made a change after a few months. What many would have seen as failure became, for Maresca, a turning point. He returned to City’s staff, continued learning, and waited for the right opportunity.
That opportunity came in June 2023, when Leicester City, freshly relegated from the Premier League, handed him the task of bringing them back up. Within months, Enzo Maresca moulded a dominant team: 97 points, best attack and best defence in the Championship, achieving promotion and the title with games to spare. “He’s transformed the way we play,” said captain Jamie Vardy. “He’s not just a coach — he’s an architect.”
The Chelsea challenge: youth, method and results
Leicester’s success didn’t go unnoticed. In May 2024, Chelsea offered Maresca a five-year contract, running until 2029, built around youth development and sustainability. A bold move for a club that had spent years burning through coaches and millions. Maresca accepted, convinced the Premier League was the ideal proving ground for his footballing philosophy.
His first season at Stamford Bridge, 2024/25, exceeded every expectation: a fourth-place finish, a return to the Champions League, and victories in both the UEFA Conference League and the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup — trophies missing from the Blues’ cabinet. Two titles that confirmed the “Maresca revolution” and his meticulous method: build, never improvise.
Above all, he restored a clear identity to Chelsea — a fluid 4-2-3-1 in which every player has a defined role. Palmer, Enzo Fernández and Mudryk are among the young talents rejuvenated under his leadership. Chelsea didn’t just win — they convinced.
A different kind of coach: European method, Italian soul
Among Italian managers, Maresca stands out. He’s not part of the generation of shouting coaches or tactical obsessives. He’s a man of long-term projects, closer in spirit to the Spanish and Northern European schools than to Italy’s traditional “win-at-all-costs” pragmatism. In press conferences he speaks softly, but on the pitch he communicates intensely. Training sessions are meticulously designed, technology is central to his process, and his staff — a blend of Italians and Britons — works in perfect harmony.
The award he received in Italy is more than personal recognition — it signals a cultural shift: the modern Italian coach can succeed abroad without abandoning his roots. Like De Zerbi, Maresca has exported a brand of football that’s both beautiful and effective, grounded in data, teamwork, and a collective vision.
The future of the Italian manager abroad
Today, Enzo Maresca earns around £5 million per season, a figure that could rise with Champions League qualification bonuses. Chelsea trust him and have tied him down until 2029, but rumours already link him with clubs such as Manchester United — and perhaps, someday, a return to Italy. Should that happen, he would find a different football world, maybe finally ready to embrace his vision.
For now, Italy admires him from afar. It’s no coincidence that his name is often cited in coaching courses at Coverciano: a manager capable of turning ideas into results, apprenticeship into expertise, and expertise into trophies.
From Leicester to London, Enzo Maresca has become the symbol of a new kind of coach — international, methodical, and human. And if his award as the best Italian coach abroad merely confirmed what was already clear, his future still promises many chapters yet to be written.
By Marta Elena Casanova
