A tell-tale sign that you’re getting old as a sports fan is when players you watched in their prime become coaches. As a Chelsea fan who has fond memories of our 2014-15 and 2016-17 title-winning seasons, seeing Cesc Fàbregas as a Serie A manager deeply messes with my brain. Nonetheless, I’m glad to see him doing well, with Como 1907 currently in 13th place in the club’s first season in the top division in 21 years.

Fàbregas clearly has the strong managerial acumen that one would’ve forecasted watching him play, and Como took a smart gamble by giving him his first shot as a head coach. But coaching a newly promoted side is a tall task for experienced managers and newbies alike, and it’s impossible to keep a team afloat in a top division without either a cohesive, competent tactical style or a reasonably talented squad.

Ideally, you need both. 

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

A manager like Fàbregas, raised in Barcelona’s La Masia academy and by legendary Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger, was always going to have the former. The latter, however, is less under the manager’s control. The players that helped the club earn promotion were typically in the second division for a reason, and potential signings might be wary of joining a club that expects to lose a lot of matches in the short term. 

That’s where a big-name, highly respected personality like Fàbregas can make the difference, even though he had little prior experience as a coach. In search of an opportunity to grow and develop, young players probably found Como more enticing because of his presence, having watched him play in Premier League and La Liga-winning teams.

You can probably guess where this is going. One such player who took a chance on Como is Nico Paz, a 20-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder who has grown into the season and become the X factor that will keep Como in Serie A.

Despite finding himself on a mid-table Italian team, Paz didn’t come out of nowhere — he has pedigree. Born and raised in the Canary Islands, Paz signed for Real Madrid’s academy when he was 11. He initially played as a central defender like his father, the former Argentina player Pablo Paz. Eventually, one of his coaches had the smart idea to move the younger Paz up the pitch, and it paid dividends. 

He rose up Real Madrid’s ranks and gained so much buzz that the Argentine national team coach Lionel Scaloni included Paz in his preliminary list for the country’s senior squad in March 2022, almost two years before Paz even made his Real Madrid first-team debut in November 2023. 

Paz didn’t go on to play in that year’s World Cup, but the recognition from Scaloni was a signal as to just how high he might climb. He appeared for Real Madrid in small cameos last season and even scored a game-winning banger in the Champions League against SSC Napoli, but it was clear his talent exceeded his meager play time in Spain’s capital. 

Como swooped in to offer Paz a chance at a meaningful role and sealed the deal, signing him from Real Madrid for just $6 million, an absolute bargain despite his rawness at the senior level. Smartly, Madrid inserted terms that give them pre-set buy-back clauses and right of first refusal should any other team try to sign Paz in the future. 

Should Madrid want Paz back this coming summer or the following one, those terms will surely save them a lot of money. That situation might work out for all parties since, in an interview with Sky Sports in February, Paz said that while he’s focused on his current team, his “dream would be to play for Real Madrid again one day.” 

But with his stellar play this season, Paz has attracted attention from more eyes than just those of his former club. It took him a couple of games to earn a starting spot for Como, but he’s now scored 6 goals and contributed four assists in 21 starts, and for a team making a survival push, every goal counts all the more. 

Interestingly, it took Paz a while to locate his shooting boots, finding the back of the net just once before December. But now he’s off and running, and Como has hit form alongside him. The team earned a trademark win against Napoli last month, beating the title hopefuls 2-1 as Paz assisted Assane Diao’s winning goal. 

Paz’s greatest asset is that he can do a bit of everything, and thus, he will fit into any system or any team he joins in the future. He’s tall and physical, offering a strong defensive work rate from the front line; his 1.61 tackles per 90 minutes played ranks in the 78th percentile of attackers in Europe’s top five leagues, per FBref, and his 0.85 interceptions are in the 98th. 

He takes a lot of shots and can put himself in good scoring positions as an attacker. He spent time as a winger in Real Madrid’s academy and has a skillset as a dribbler, averaging 2.61 successful take-ons per 90. His “similar players” section on FBref — sometimes a crock of nonsense — actually reflects well on Paz, listing Jude Bellingham, Bruno Fernandes and Dominik Szoboszlai as statistically similar players. 

All of those guys contribute to both attack and defense, anchoring their teams in solid and smart play  — well, Fernandes is doing his best with Manchester United. If Paz lives up to those standards, he won’t just score a lot of goals, but more importantly, he’ll win plenty of trophies. 

Jack Hallinan is a senior writing about the top wunderkinds in men’s and women’s soccer in his column, “Rising Ballers,” which runs every other Thursday.