Gerónimo Rulli Returns to Manchester City: Veteran Backup with Big Game Experience
Manchester City have turned to a familiar face to strengthen their goalkeeping department, agreeing a £1.7m deal to bring Argentina international Gerónimo Rulli back to the Etihad Stadium on a two-year contract.
He was there once before and barely left a footprint. This time, he arrives with a story.
Back in 2016-17, Rulli spent a season on City’s books without making a single first-team appearance, a name on the squad list rather than a presence on the pitch. Since then, he has built a career defined by big stages and bigger moments, the kind that stick in the memory long after the final whistle.
The defining image came in Gdańsk in 2021. Villarreal vs Manchester United. Europa League final. A shootout that refused to end.
Rulli stepped up, took a penalty of his own and buried it. Then he walked back to his line, faced David de Gea and saved the United goalkeeper’s kick to seal the trophy. A keeper who scores, then decides the final with his gloves – it was the night he crossed from solid professional into European folklore.
City are not signing that moment, of course, but they are signing the experience that followed it. Now 34, Rulli arrives as a World Cup winner and Copa America champion, part of Argentina’s squads that lifted the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 Copa America. Eight caps may not sound like many, yet in a national team era dominated by Emi Martínez, every call-up underlines the trust of Lionel Scaloni’s staff.
His club journey has been equally nomadic and instructive. Real Sociedad in La Liga, where he first made his name in Europe. Montpellier in Ligue 1. Ajax in the Netherlands. Marseille most recently. Each stop added another layer: different leagues, different pressures, different demands on a goalkeeper asked to play, pass, and lead.
At City, the context is clear. Ederson remains the undisputed number one, a cornerstone of Pep Guardiola’s build-up play. Behind him, though, the club want reliability, calm, and someone who has lived through the chaos of finals and title races. Rulli ticks those boxes.
He returns to Manchester no longer as a prospect, but as a veteran who has seen almost everything the game can throw at a goalkeeper. The first spell passed almost unnoticed. The second begins with medals in his luggage and a reputation forged under floodlights and on trophy podiums.
City know exactly what they’re getting this time.
