After starting out at West Bromwich Albion in 1998, he went on to play for several clubs in his country, including Juventus, who loaned him twice for the duration of his contract and with whom he won the league title in 2002.

Born in Pontecagnano Faiano, Province of Salerno, Maresca started playing football at the age of 11 with A.C. Milan and joined Cagliari after three years.

[3] He made his debut in a 2–0 home defeat against Bradford City on 20 September 1998, and played two incomplete seasons with the English club in the Football League First Division.

[4] In January 2000, Maresca moved back to Italy and joined Juventus in a transfer worth £4.3 million, a club-record sale for Albion at the time.

During the previous campaign, he notably netted an important equaliser in the Derby della mole return leg, against neighbouring Torino; he attracted controversy, however, when he celebrated the goal by mimicking Torino's Marco Ferrante's earlier "bull-horn" goal celebration (the bull being a club symbol as it is Turin's coat of arms, and the side also being known in its contracted form as "Toro", bull in Italian).

[7] In the summer of 2004, Fiorentina signed Maresca along with Fabrizio Miccoli and Giorgio Chiellini for €13 million, with Juventus holding half of the players' rights.

At the end of the season, with the Viola narrowly avoiding top level relegation, Juventus bought back all three for around €6.7 million in a blind auction between the clubs.

[13] Maresca played 45 minutes in the 2007 UEFA Cup Final at Hampden Park, as Sevilla successfully defended its European title against Espanyol.

[18] Maresca appeared in 19 matches in 2011–12 (nine starts, two goals[19][20]) as his team finished in fourth position and qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in its history.

[23] In January 2014, after having featured rarely in the first half of the new campaign, he agreed on a return to the Serie B and joined league leaders Palermo, who were in need of a playmaker.

A versatile, consistent, fast, energetic and hardworking player, Maresca was capable of playing anywhere in midfield;[33][34][35] although he was often deployed as a deep-lying playmaker, due to his ability to orchestrate his team's offensive moves and create goalscoring opportunities, his preferred position was in a box-to-box role, either as a central or attacking midfielder, where he often demonstrated his offensive capabilities, eye for goal and adeptness at making late attacking runs into the penalty area.

[56] In December, he won the award for the third time, after leading Leicester to end the calendar year at the top of the league, getting six wins and 18 goals from seven matches.

[60] On 3 June 2024, Premier League club Chelsea announced that Maresca would be joining as head coach on 1 July 2024, signing a five-year deal with an option to extend for a further year.

[62] A week later, he achieved his first win as Chelsea manager in the Premier League by thrashing Wolverhampton Wanderers 2–6 thanks to a hat-trick from Noni Madueke and other goals scored by Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and João Félix.