Enzo Maresca

Early years

Born in Pontecagnano Faiano, Province of Salerno, Maresca started playing football at the age of 11 with AC Milan and joined Cagliari after three years. Maresca started his professional career with English club West Bromwich Albion, despite having "no grasp of the English language". He made his debut in a 2–0 home defeat against Bradford City on 20 September 1998, and played two incomplete seasons with the English club in the Football League First Division.

Juventus

In January 2000, Maresca moved back to Italy and joined Juventus in a transfer worth £4.3 million, a club-record sale for Albion at the time. He played in one Serie A game before the end of the season. For two of the following three seasons, Maresca was loaned to fellow league teams Bologna and Piacenza—a co-ownership deal in the latter case—scoring nine goals in the 2002–03 season but suffering team relegation. During the previous campaign, he notably netted an important equaliser in the Derby della Mole return leg, against neighbouring Torino; he attracted controversy, however, when he celebrated the goal by mimicking an earlier 'bull-horn' goal celebration by Torino's Marco Ferrante (the bull being a club symbol as it is Turin's coat of arms, and the side also being known in its contracted form as "Toro", bull in Italian). Juventus subsequently bought the remaining 50% of his rights for €2.6 million.

Fiorentina

In the summer of 2004, Fiorentina signed Maresca along with…

Maresca was selected by the Italy under-20 team for the 2000 Toulon Tournament, and finished runner-up with the under-18s in the 1999 UEFA European Championship. He also represented the under-21 side for two years between 2000 and 2002, although he missed the 2002 UEFA European Championship tournament in Switzerland due to injury as the nation went on to reach the semi-finals of the tournament. He was never capped at full level.

Maresca was capable of playing anywhere in midfield; while he was often deployed as a deep-lying playmaker, due to his ability to orchestrate his team's offensive moves and create goalscoring opportunities, his preferred position was in a box-to-box role, either as a central or attacking midfielder. He also played as a mezzala. Emiliano Mondonico, Maresca's former manager at Fiorentina, described him as a "complete player".

Early career

On 1 June 2017, Maresca was unveiled as part of the non-playing staff of Serie B club Ascoli for the upcoming season. As he did not have the required coaching badges by the time of the hiring, he was officially appointed as assistant to new head coach Fulvio Fiorin, formerly a youth manager and scout for Milan. Maresca joined Sevilla as one of Vincenzo Montella’s assistant managers at the beginning of 2017 and remained in the role until Montella was sacked in April 2018. Maresca started his career in England at West Ham United as one of Manuel Pellegrini’s assistant managers from July 2018 until December 2019. Maresca signed a three-year contract with the Hammers in June 2018 after arriving from Sevilla at Pellegrini’s request. However, he left West Ham United after Pellegrini was dismissed, despite being offered the opportunity to remain under David Moyes. In August 2020, Maresca was hired by Manchester City as manager of their Elite Development Squad. He won the Premier League 2 title in his only season in charge of the Elite Development Squad. On 27 May 2021, Maresca was hired as the new head coach of Parma, who played in Serie B in the 2021–22 season. Maresca failed in leading Parma into the promotion spots, being eventually dismissed on 23 November 2021. In June 2022, Maresca returned to Manchester City as one of Pep Guardiola's assistant managers, replacing Juanma Lillo, who became manager of Al-Sadd.

Leicester City

On 16 June 2023,…