Manchester City Sign Geronimo Rulli for €2m Deal
Manchester City have turned to a familiar name to solve their goalkeeping puzzle, agreeing a €2m (£1.7m) deal to sign Geronimo Rulli from Marseille on a two-year contract.
The move comes swiftly on the heels of James Trafford’s departure to Leeds United for an initial £40m, a sale that left City needing an experienced, reliable No 2 behind Gianluigi Donnarumma. They have chosen a goalkeeper who has seen almost everything the game can throw at him.
Rulli, now 34, returns to City eight years after he first appeared on their books. That first spell never truly began. Signed in 2016, he was immediately loaned to Real Sociedad and then sold to the Spanish club without making a single appearance for the Premier League side.
Since then he has built a career that makes far more sense of City’s renewed interest. He became a regular in La Liga with Real Sociedad, then moved through Montpellier and Ajax, and most recently established himself as Marseille’s first-choice goalkeeper over the last two seasons. In France he has offered exactly what City now want: calm, authority, and the assurance of a goalkeeper who has lived through high‑pressure nights.
His defining club moment came with Villarreal. In the 2021 Europa League final against Manchester United, Rulli stepped into the spotlight in a way few goalkeepers ever do. The shootout stretched deep into sudden death; he both scored his own penalty and then saved the decisive kick to deliver the trophy to the Spanish side. That kind of nerve under the harshest lights will not have gone unnoticed in Manchester.
On the international stage, Rulli’s medal collection is even more eye-catching than his minutes. He was part of Argentina’s World Cup-winning squad in 2022 and then a runner-up this summer, yet did not play a single minute in either tournament. His role was from the bench and the training ground, but he lived through the intensity of back-to-back global campaigns, sharing a dressing room with serial winners and coping with the relentless pressure that follows Argentina everywhere.
For City, that background matters. Donnarumma is the undisputed No 1, but the demands on a modern elite squad mean the deputy cannot simply be a prospect waiting for cup games. Trafford’s sale underlined the club’s willingness to cash in on young talent; Rulli’s arrival underlines their preference, at this stage, for experience over potential in such a critical position.
This time, Rulli will not be a paper signing who never sees the Etihad pitch. He arrives as a World Cup winner, a Europa League hero, and a seasoned No 1 ready to step in whenever City call.
