Welcome to issue #021 of Contemporary Football, your inside look at how the game really works behind the scenes.
Monday to Friday, you’ll uncover a new perspective on football business, and sometimes a deeper story that sharpens your thinking and gives you an edge in the beautiful game.
If you need support on your football journey, just write me.
Hey everyone,
Something unusual is happening in Italian football.
Something we’re not used to seeing outside of Milan, Inter, Juve, Roma, Napoli.
A new big club is being built.
And it’s not from a capital.
Not from an industrial city.
It’s from Como.
Owned and driven by an Indonesian family with a plan that very few European clubs even dare to imagine.
Como is building an ecosystem
We’re talking about:
tourism
luxury hospitality
entertainment
elite infrastructure
global partnerships
a long-term Champions League vision
Clubs usually talk about “projects.”
Como is talking about an entire economic district built around football.
They’re behaving like a brand expanding into multiple industries.
And that’s exactly the point.
Como is not trying to be Atalanta.
Or Udinese.
Or the typical small club that shines for two seasons and then resets.
They’re building a football-business hybrid designed to last.
A club that wants:
Champions League football
Premium fan experiences
International audiences
And a Lake Como lifestyle brand behind it
Here’s the part nobody is talking about
While Como builds the ecosystem…
The transfer market is being rewritten at the same time.
Take the top 25 most expensive signings in their history.
Almost all of them happened in the last three years.
It shows where football is going:
More liquidity.
More ambition.
More competition for talent.
More pressure on “small” clubs to think like big ones.
Here are Como’s record transfers, and pay attention to the pattern:
Top Signings (recent years dominate):
Jesús Rodríguez – €22.5m
Nicolas Kühn – €19m
Martin Baturina – €18m
Maxence Caqueret – €15m
Anastasios Douvikas – €14m
Jayden Addai – €14m
Máximo Perrone – €13m
Assane Diao – €12m
Alberto Dossena – €8.5m
Yannik Engelhardt – €8m
Fifteen, sixteen of these transfers?
All post-2022.
Como is spending like a club that knows the window to become relevant is right now and not in 2030.
My take
Italian football has a new big club forming.
A club with:
serious capital behind it
a global vision
a destination city
a modern operational mindset
and an ownership group that thinks in ecosystems, not seasons
It won’t be linear.
It won’t be perfect.
There will be mistakes, doubts, and frustrations.
But the direction is clear.
Como is not a surprise anymore.
It’s a strategy.
And sooner or later, the rest of Europe will realise it.
Probably when they see Como in Europe…
and when Lake Como becomes not just a postcard, but a football powerhouse.
I really enjoy seeing a “new” club compete with the big names.
And I hope that growth will continue even when Fabregas leaves the club.
That’s all for today!
See you tomorrow,
Federico