Enzo Maresca reveals the bizarre reason why Erling Haaland can't captain Man City

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Tom Weber | Writer

Multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer.

Enzo Maresca insists that Erling Haaland isn't captain material for Manchester City, but it has nothing to do with his personality.

The Italian is getting ready for his first season at the helm of one of England's most successful clubs. Maresca faces the tall task of succeeding the legendary Pep Guardiola after the Spaniard brought the curtain down on an era-defining decade at the Etihad earlier this summer.

Having previously worked as an assistant to Guardiola, the 46-year-old isn't a complete unknown at Man City, which will surely be helpful, as will the fact that he was given a head start, as it had been clear since January that he would likely take charge of the team this summer.

The club's captaincy is one of the biggest immediate issues that he must resolve. Man City have lost a lot of experience in recent transfer windows, including captain Bernardo Silva, who joined Real Madrid on a free transfer this summer.

Last year, following a hugely disappointing 2024/25 season, Guardiola broke with tradition and personally appointed the Portugal international as the team's captain after previously letting the players decide. Maresca will likewise choose a captain himself.

Maresca: Haaland scores too much to be captain

According to the BBC, Man City's current leadership group consists of Ruben Dias, Erling Haaland and Rodri. However, with the latter increasingly likely to join Barcelona this summer, it leaves Dias and Haaland as the clear frontrunners for the captaincy.

Remarkably, despite only joining the club in 2022, Haaland is among City's longest-serving players, such has been the personnel turnover at the club in recent years. But Maresca insists that he can't make the Norwegian captain.

The coach's reasoning is quite bizarre. It has nothing to do with Haaland's goofy personality outside of the pitch or his overall demeanour. It's actually because he scores too many goals!

Every manager has their own idiosyncracies, and Maresca is no different. Since his time at Leicester City, the Italian has enforced a rule requiring the captain to come over to the coaching area for instructions whenever a goal is scored.

This rule doesn't apply if the captain himself scores, so naturally Maresca doesn't want a player who frequently finds the back of the net as his captain. He explained: "Erling was one of the first to send a message when I joined the club.

"At Leicester and Chelsea I had a rule that when we scored, the captain had to come to the bench, not to celebrate, but for instructions. But if he scores, then he can celebrate.

"If Erling is the captain, we have a problem, can you imagine? If you saw the game [against the K-League All-stars] on Wednesday, when we scored the first goal, Ruben [Dias] 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 [in the leadership group], and we are missing one."