Key Points
- Manchester City named Enzo Maresca their manager on a three-year deal, succeeding Pep Guardiola
- City paid Chelsea £17m (~$22M) in compensation, and Maresca agreed a personal settlement
- Maresca left Chelsea on January 1 after flagging the chance to replace Guardiola
- It is Maresca's third spell at City, where he was Guardiola's assistant in 2022-23
Manchester City have made it official, and the receipt comes with two signatures. The club confirmed Enzo Maresca as Pep Guardiola's successor on a three-year deal, with City paying Chelsea £17m (~$22M) in compensation and Maresca himself agreeing a separate personal settlement with his former club to complete the move.
The arrangement is unusual on both counts: clubs rarely pay a fee for a head coach, and managers almost never pay out of their own pocket to leave. Maresca had departed Stamford Bridge on January 1, having told Chelsea at the end of the previous season that a chance to replace Guardiola might open. In a statement, he apologized to Chelsea for the "disruption" his exit caused but said he was "ecstatic" to be joining City. His Chelsea tenure had begun with real promise after he signed at Stamford Bridge; it ends with him buying his way out of it.
For City, the hire is a homecoming. It is Maresca's third spell at the club: he ran the Elite Development Squad and served as Guardiola's first-team assistant between 2022 and 2023 before head-coaching jobs at Leicester and Chelsea. Inheriting a Guardiola-built squad is the most coveted and most exposed job in the sport — the compensation City were willing to pay, and the settlement Maresca was willing to swallow, show how badly both sides wanted this particular succession to happen.
Source: ESPN, The Irish Times, Sports Illustrated
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