Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca spoke about the captaincy during a wide-ranging interview with reporters in Seoul
Erling Haaland of Manchester City puts the crown from the 2022/2023 Premier League trophy on his head after dropping it during the After Party Celebration to mark the achievements of Manchester City men’s, women’s and academy teams during the 25/26 season at The Co-op Live Arena on May 25, 2026 in Manchester, England.
Erling Haaland of Manchester City puts the crown from the 2022/2023 Premier League trophy on his head after dropping it during the After Party Celebration to mark the achievements of Manchester City men’s, women’s and academy teams during the 25/26 season at The Co-op Live Arena on May 25, 2026 in Manchester, England.
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Erling Haaland was one of the first Manchester City players to message Enzo Maresca and congratulate him on succeeding Pep Guardiola. But the Norway striker is unlikely to get to lead the team out too often under the new manager - because he scores too many goals.
Haaland was made a City captain after January 2025 when he signed a new deal committing himself to the club for almost a decade. The 26-year-old has grown as a leader over the last season and is one of just a handful of players still left in the squad from when they won the Treble three years ago.
New boss Maresca will be counting on Haaland not just for his personality but also for his goals. More importance given to City getting the ball to their wide players so that they can beat their men and cross into the box should create even more chances for the No.9 to score from.
However, that will only cause more problems for any notion of making Haaland the permanent captain. Maresca uses goals for a tactical timeout with his skipper, yet he wouldn't be able to do that given his star striker would be off leading the celebrations so often.
"At Leicester and Chelsea, I had a rule that when we scored, the captain had to come to the bench for instructions and not celebrate," he said in his first interview since becoming City boss. "But if he scores, then he can celebrate. If Erling is the captain, f****** hell - we have a problem, can you imagine?
"If you saw the game on Wednesday (a 3-1 win against K-League All-Stars), when we scored the first goal, Ruben came over to the bench. I think even if it is two or three minutes, there is always something to adjust. At the moment, we have three or four and we are missing one. In the case of Rodri, see what happens."
While Guardiola left the captaincy to a player vote for his first nine seasons, he changed that in his final year as he appointed Bernardo Silva. Maresca will choose the next skipper following Silva's departure, and also wants to add an English player to the leadership group; Phil Foden or Marc Guehi could benefit from that call.