When Como 1907 walk out for their first-ever Champions League match against RB Leipzig on Thursday, they’ll do so as a club that has rewritten its identity almost completely. Founded in 1907 on the shores of one of Italy’s most famous lakes, the team now fields a squad so international that many Italians complain it no longer feels like an Italian club at all. The debate makes their historic European debut even more fascinating.
Como 1907’s Serie A Squad Is Now Mostly Foreign-Born Players
Look at the current roster and the shift jumps out immediately. The vast majority of the squad is foreign-born, and it’s not uncommon for the starting eleven to contain just one or two Italians. Goalkeeper Mauro Vigorito and defender Edoardo Goldaniga are among the rare local names who still feature regularly, while the rest of the team is packed with Spanish, French, Croatian, Argentine, Brazilian, and other international talent. Italian media and supporters have repeatedly noted the near-absence of homegrown players, turning the club into a talking point about the broader identity of Serie A.
From Local Club to Global Project
Como spent most of its existence as a modest provincial side, bouncing between divisions and enduring multiple bankruptcies — as recently as 2016, the club very nearly disappeared entirely. The decisive break came in 2019 when Indonesia’s Djarum Group, controlled by billionaire brothers Robert Budi and the late Michael Bambang Hartono, bought the club while it was still playing in Serie D, Italy’s fourth tier. Reported figures for the purchase vary widely, from roughly $200,000 to around €850,000 depending on the source, but by any account it was a remarkably cheap entry point for a family with a combined fortune in the tens of billions — and they immediately cleared the club’s outstanding debt on top of it. What followed was a rapid, well-funded rebuild. The new ownership brought in experienced football figures, most notably former Chelsea midfielder Dennis Wise, who joined as a technical consultant in 2019 and was promoted to CEO around 2021, a role he held until leaving the club in July 2024. Wise’s early involvement helped set the tone for a modern, ambitious project that looked far beyond the Italian market from the start.
The Cesc Fàbregas Transformation
The arrival of Cesc Fàbregas in 2022 as both player and minority shareholder — alongside fellow shareholder and former Arsenal and Barcelona teammate Thierry Henry — accelerated everything. After retiring as a player, Fàbregas moved into coaching and eventually took full control of the first team. Under his leadership, Como climbed from Serie D to Serie B, then earned promotion back to Serie A in 2023 after a 21-year absence, and finished fourth last season to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in the club’s 119-year history. The qualification itself was pure drama: Como beat Cremonese 4-1 on the final day of the season, a result that only mattered because it coincided with AC Milan losing to Cagliari at the same time, handing Como the spot instead. Fàbregas’s recruitment philosophy has been clear throughout: prioritize young, hungry, high-upside players who fit a modern, possession-oriented style. That approach produced exciting football and rapid results — Como finished with the second-highest goal tally and the best defensive record in all of Serie A last season — but it also produced a squad that looks more like a multinational experimental project than a traditional Italian club.
Identity Debate Meets Champions League Ambition
Club officials have pushed back against the criticism, arguing that top young Italian talent is hard to attract and that their data-driven model simply targets the best available profiles regardless of passport. Fàbregas himself has acknowledged the difficulty of competing with Italy’s biggest clubs for domestic prospects. The result is a genuine paradox: a club that’s become one of Serie A’s most stylish and progressive sides while simultaneously sparking an ongoing conversation about what an “Italian” team should even look like in 2026.
As Como prepare for their Champions League debut, the story is no longer just about a small club punching above its weight. It’s about how modern football, foreign ownership, and a visionary coach can completely reshape a club’s identity in less than a decade. Whether fans ultimately embrace the new Como or continue to mourn the old one, the team that takes the field against Leipzig will be living proof of how dramatically the game has changed.
You can follow Como vs RB Leipzig LIVE at 21:00 CET (3pm ET) right here on HEAVY.COM. The game will be broadcast by CBS Sports Network and Paramount+ (English) as well as streamer ViX (Spanish) in the U.S.; DAZN and FuboTV in Canada; TNT Sports-3 in the UK.
Where to watch all of today’s matches – HERE.
Como 1907: The Italian Club That Barely Feels Italian Anymore