Enzo Maresca is the first coach to wear skinny jeans Against Brentford, the Chelsea manager showed off a wild outfit
In the last Premier League weekend, Chelsea faced a surprising Brentford, able to stop Enzo Maresca’s Blues with a 2-2 draw. But the Italian coach drew attention not only for the result, but also for a decidedly peculiar and divisive look: skinny jeans and Jordan 1 lows. The curious detail is that Chelsea, on its official Instagram profile, published between 20 and 25 posts about the match, without including even a single shot of the coach — a sign that perhaps the club itself wasn’t too fond of that outfit. Only the players were featured in the images, as is usually the case during game highlights.
Until yesterday, Maresca had come across as a rather sober coach, a bit like Maurizio Sarri: a preference for tracksuit and jacket provided by the club, rather than a deliberately styled outfit. Perhaps, though, some hints of a hidden side were already there for us to notice: just look at his wrist, often decorated with numerous bracelets, almost as if to evoke a shamanic aesthetic reminiscent of Luciano Spalletti during his Napoli years. Back then, the Tuscan coach would show up with necklaces, rosaries, dog tags, and the famous wool hats resting just on the back of his head, evoking Bob Marley’s rasta cap. But in reality, Enzo Maresca’s look against Brentford — which who knows, might be repeated in the coming matchdays — is anything but shamanic; it’s a normie look, the kind an 18-year-old might have worn at his 18th birthday party in 2016, with a blazer and T-shirt underneath.
Let’s be honest: from someone who had the courage to celebrate with the “horns” gesture in the Turin derby back in February 2002, you’d expect a more extravagant look. Yet, even during his short spell at Parma, Enzo Maresca never showed the flair needed to stand out and develop a personal style, one capable of deviating from the dominant aesthetic trend of Serie A coaches — which, in an article a year ago, we labeled Stefano Pioli-core.
The style of coaches in these first months of the new football season
No, we don’t really think Enzo Maresca’s look will trigger a Copernican revolution: skinny jeans won’t suddenly become widespread among football coaches — thankfully — unless one day someone pairs them with a nice Yves Saint Laurent Wyatt. But what looks are coaches showing off at the start of this season? Well, for just mid-September, there have already been some novelties. In addition to Maresca’s skinny-and-Jordan-1-Low combo, we’ve also noticed José Mourinho — when he was still managing Fenerbahçe, before being sacked — and Lukas Kwasniok, coach of Cologne.
The first, during the Champions League qualifiers and before Domenico Tedesco took his place, showed off some truly unique adidas outfits. Before the decisive and fateful match against Benfica on August 27, he had twice worn a Three Stripes shirt that — speaking of coaches’ style — was very reminiscent of the Thom Browne cardigans worn by Scott Parker during his Bournemouth days. In the decisive match, which sealed the Turkish club’s elimination from the Champions League, José Mourinho instead showed up with another adidas piece: a crewneck with an irregular collar. It’s already rare to see a coach in a sweatshirt, let alone one of that level.
The most curious case (we’re still only at September 15, the seasons have just started, so what better time to recall the saying “well begun is half done”) is that of Cologne’s coach, Lukas Kwasniok. In the first two Bundesliga matches he chose to wear the club’s official shirt: the Home kit in the first game, the Away in the second. In just a few minutes he swept away years of formalwear by declaring: “I’m proud to work for this club and I wear it with pride. When the shirts were unveiled, I got goosebumps.”
