Chelsea have confirmed the appointment of Enzo Maresca as their new head coach, with the Italian making the switch from Leicester City.
Maresca has been with the Foxes for just one season but led them straight back to the Premier League at the first attempt, picking up the Championship title on the way. His clear style of play is one thing that caught the eye of bosses at Chelsea.
The Blues have paid around £9 million in compensation to Leicester for the move. But there is also an extra figure for six members of staff that he has brought with him from the King Power Stadium.
Fabrizio Romano reports that Chelsea will pay compensation for the staff leaving Leicester. The club have confirmed that his staff include Willy Caballero, Danny Walker, Michele De Bernardin, Marcos Alvarez, Javi Molina and Roberto Vitiello.
Here’s a closer look at the new members of staff:
Willy Caballero – assistant manager
The name that will be most familiar to Chelsea fans, the goalkeeper officially hung up his gloves last summer to join Maresca as assistant manager at Leicester. The Argentine spent four years as a player at Stamford Bridge, making 38 appearances for the club.
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He was part of the squad that won the FA Cup in 2018, the Europa League in 2019, and the Champions League in 2021. He left at the end of his contract the following summer before signing for Southampton, who he stayed with until his retirement.
Danny Walker – First team coach
Walker previously worked under Maresca with Manchester City’s Development squad between 2022 and 2022 before joining Peterborough United as Senior Professional Development Phase Lead Coach. The 38-year-old joined Maresca as Leicester as first-team coach last summer.
Michele De Bernardin – Goalkeeper coach
Leicester had a change in goalkeeper coach with the appointment of Maresca with long-term servant Mike Stowell replaced by De Bernardin. He first worked with Maresca during their time with Italian Serie B side Parma.
During the 2022/23 season, he was goalkeeper coach and first-team coach with Italian side Sampdoria before joining Maresca at Leicester.
Marcos Alvarez – Fitness coach
He was another coach to have worked with the manager at Parma. Alvarez has several clubs on his CV before Leicester, including Sevilla, Tottenham, Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow, Dnipro, Real Betis, Parma and SPAL.
Javier Molina Caballero – First team analyst
He also worked with Maresca at Parma and joined the Italian at Leicester last summer. He arrived from Atletico Madrid, having previously worked with Barcelona B, Racing Santander, and the Andorra national team.
Roberto Vitiello
The 41-year-old was Maresca’s assistant manager during his brief time at Serie B club Parma. It was expected that he would join him at Leicester, but there was no official confirmation during his time at the King Power Stadium. However, in their press release, Leicester did name the Italian as one of those who would join Chelsea from the club.
Bernardo Cueva
The 36-year-old is joining as a set-piece coach, but unlike most of the other staff, he has not worked with Maresca before. The Mexican arrives from Brentford and will be responsible with working with the squad on both defending and attacking set pieces.
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