Enzo Maresca has thrown his full support behind new arrival Liam Delap, admitting that the striker is destined to become England’s first-choice number nine.
Delap, 22, is set to make his Chelsea debut at the Club World Cup after completing a £30million switch from Ipswich earlier this month.
The move sees Delap reunited with Maresca, who previously coached him at Manchester City’s academy. The forward signed a six-year deal at Stamford Bridge after scoring 12 goals across 37 Premier League matches last season.
Chelsea begin their Club World Cup campaign against Los Angeles FC on Monday, where Delap could feature for the first time in blue.
Maresca, speaking from the United States, praised Delap’s potential: “I said Liam can be England’s number nine when we faced Ipswich.
“Now he is a Chelsea player, I’m going to say again, I don’t have any doubt that he can be in the future England number nine.
Chelsea paid as much for Liam Delap as LAFC’s entire squad is worth 🤑 pic.twitter.com/8obPPxSDQk
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) June 16, 2025
“We won with Manchester City’s Under-23s, he scored 24, 25 goals that season, so he knows exactly what we can give him, I know what Liam can give us.
“It’s a win-win. We like Liam, Liam likes us, so it was an easy conversation.”
Delap chose to withdraw from England’s squad for the European Under-21 Championship in order to join up with Chelsea for their US tour.
Delap is one of four fresh faces in the Chelsea setup heading into the tournament, alongside returning loanee Andrey Santos and new youth recruits Dario Essugo, Mamadou Sarr, and Mike Penders.
Despite the fanfare surrounding Delap’s arrival, Maresca was tight-lipped about whether the striker would start against LAFC, noting that he faces competition from Nicolas Jackson for the lead role in attack.
