Manchester City Sign Geronimo Rulli as Trafford Replacement

Manchester City have turned to a familiar face to reshape their goalkeeping department, striking a £1.7m deal to sign Argentina international Geronimo Rulli from Marseille.

The 34-year-old returns to the Etihad Stadium on a two-year contract, eight years after his first spell at the club in 2016-17, when he never made a first-team appearance and slipped quietly back into European circulation. This time, he arrives with a career’s worth of scars, medals and defining moments behind him.

Rulli steps in after England goalkeeper James Trafford completed a move to Leeds earlier in the week in a deal worth up to £45m. Trafford’s departure left City needing an experienced deputy, and they have opted for a World Cup winner to sit behind undisputed number one Gianluigi Donnarumma.

If his first stint at City barely registered, what came next certainly did. Rulli’s name is etched into Villarreal folklore after that extraordinary Europa League final in 2021. In Gdańsk, he not only converted his own penalty in a nerve-shredding shootout against Manchester United, he then denied David de Gea to clinch the trophy in the 11-10 epic. A goalkeeper deciding a European final at both ends of the pitch – that kind of moment sticks.

His club journey has taken him across the continent: Real Sociedad in La Liga, Montpellier in Ligue 1, Ajax in the Eredivisie, and most recently Marseille. Each stop added layers of experience that City now value in a squad built to compete on every front.

On the international stage, Rulli has collected eight caps for Argentina and, more tellingly, a place in history. He was part of the Albiceleste squads that lifted the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 Copa America, training daily in an environment defined by pressure and expectation, even if he was not the headline act.

City are not signing the star of the show. They are signing reliability, know-how and a goalkeeper who has already stared down some of the game’s biggest moments. For a club chasing marginal gains in every position, Rulli’s return as Donnarumma’s understudy is a calculated move – and a second chance to make his mark in Manchester.