Como 1907's Champions League premiere against RB Leipzig is a striking moment for a club that only a few years ago was still in Serie D. The scale of the rise is hard to miss, but so is the message from Cesc Fàbregas: this is not a one-night story, it is a long-term project.
The club's journey has been driven by the investment of Robert Hartono and Michael Hartono, with Como now combining football ambition with tourism, luxury and celebrity appeal around the Comer See. It is an unusual model for a football club, but it has taken Como from repeated insolvency in 2019 to the Champions League in 2025.
Fàbregas, who joined in summer 2022 first as a player and then as coach, has been clear about the way he sees the job. “Ich sehe das hier als Langzeit-Projekt,” he said, adding: “Ich kann hier so arbeiten, wie ich es möchte.”
That matters because it explains why Como's rise should be judged over years rather than one match. They have reached the top table quickly, but the club's own people are already talking about the next stage: stadium modernisation next year, and a target of being valued at one billion dollars by 2038.
What makes Como so unusual?
Most clubs talk about growth in football terms first. Como's story is different. The source of the ambition is business as much as sport, and Mirwan Suwarso put that bluntly when he said: “Wir haben keine sportlichen Ambitionen. Wir haben geschäftliche Ambitionen und wir wollen bis 2038 eine Bewertung von einer Milliarde Dollar erreichen. Das ist unser Ziel.”
That does not make the football irrelevant, of course. If anything, it makes the pressure more complex. A club that has gone from Serie D in 2019 to the Champions League in 2025 is no longer a curiosity. It is a serious project with serious expectations, even if the setting still feels closer to a luxury destination than a conventional football fortress.
The Giuseppe Sinigaglia will only hold about 11,000 spectators in the competition, which underlines how quickly Como's growth has outpaced parts of the infrastructure. A comprehensive modernization is scheduled for next year, but for now the club is living through a remarkable contradiction: a tiny Champions League stage for a club with huge commercial ambition.
RB Leipzig provide the natural comparison
RB Leipzig are a useful reference point because they too climbed from the fourth division to the Champions League. That comparison gives Como's supporters a sense of what rapid advancement can look like when structure, money and ambition move in the same direction.
But Fàbregas' influence gives Como a slightly different edge. He is both coach and shareholder, which means he is not simply managing the team from week to week. He is helping to shape the identity of the project itself.
For now, the obvious next question is whether Como can turn their first Champions League appearance into something more lasting. The club has already proved it can rise quickly. The real test is whether it can do what Fàbregas says it wants to do and build something that lasts.
