The player Butcher reaches for when he thinks about match-winners in today’s Premier League does not play for Manchester City or Arsenal. He plays for a mid-table Ipswich side, and he scored his first goal of this spell at the club just five days ago.
Julio Enciso, a 22-year-old Paraguay international, returned to Ipswich this summer from RC Strasbourg on a five-year deal, with the fee reported at £26m. He is the player Butcher names as the closest thing the English top flight has to Maradona right now.
“Enciso is a really exciting player. He can win games on his own, he’s not quite a Diego Maradona or Lionel Messi but like them, he plays football with a smile on his face,” Butcher told the Mirror, speaking as part of a Royal British Legion and MatchWornShirt Poppy Appeal campaign.
Butcher, 67, made over 250 appearances for Ipswich as a defender in the 1980s and remains one of the club’s most recognisable former captains. The former England international said he enjoys watching a technician like Enciso, even if the game has drifted a long way from the physical style he grew up on.
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Reaching for Maradona, then pulling back
Butcher reaches for the biggest name in the sport to flag Enciso’s potential to settle a match single-handedly, then pulls back from the comparison in the same breath, acknowledging the Paraguayan is “not quite” at that level.
Enciso’s current form fits the half-step framing. He scored on 41 minutes in Ipswich’s 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest on 23 October, pouncing on a short back pass from Nikola Milenković, running clear and finishing low at the near post. It was his first goal since the summer move, and his second spell at the club: Enciso spent the second half of the 2024-25 season on loan at Ipswich from Brighton, contributing two goals and three assists in 13 Premier League appearances.
Butcher likes the way Ipswich look
Ipswich sit around mid-table under head coach Gary O’Neil, appointed on 23 June from Strasbourg on a three-year contract. The Butcher interview is pitched squarely at Ipswich fans who remember the previous Premier League return ending in relegation, and his message is that this version of the squad is better equipped.
“We look in better shape than we did before. We’ve got players who have Premier League experience, know what to do and what it takes to stay in the Premier League,” he told the Mirror.
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O’Neil’s side resume their Premier League schedule after the international break.
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