Cesc Fàbregas is writing a Hollywood script at Como as film stars watch on | Nicky Bandini
Cesc Fàbregas is writing a Hollywood script at Como as film stars watch on | Nicky Bandini
Share:
Promoted team with expensive signings and celebrity fans are driven by the intensity of their manager and stakeholder. The faces surrounding Cesc Fàbregas were glum, yet he spoke like a conquering general: bellowing praise at his troops as he strode among them, pointing at his eyes then pounding a fist into his open palm. “We devoured them! We devoured them! Keep going because this is only the start!”.
![[Dele Alli hugs Atalanta's Ademola Lookman after the game.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7f870865fcc1215a165fc4d399f47c7b1a9a135c/0_87_2470_1483/master/2470.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
It was another cinematic moment at a venue that has become a favourite for Hollywood stars. Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Michael Fassbender, Kate Beckinsale and Benedict Cumberbatch are but a few of the A-listers who have come to watch Como play this season at their Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia. All to see a team struggling in the bottom half of the Serie A table. You might not have guessed it from Fàbregas’s tone, but his team lost 2-1 to Atalanta on Saturday.
![[Nico Paz (right) has been Como’s star this season and opened the scoring against Atalanta.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/84d3ed592dd6839892a0973863b5db0fc91f4ffa/0_0_3072_1843/master/3072.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
And yet the mood around this team is still triumphant. Those celebrity sightings are at once a testament to how the club has rebuilt and rebranded since being taken over by the Indonesian billionaire brothers, Robert and Michael Hartono in 2019, and a catalyst for further progress. Lake Como has long been a playground for the rich and famous but now its football club aspires to establish itself as an aspirational place for players to further their careers.
The appointment of Fàbregas himself might be viewed through the same lens: a footballing celebrity hired by Como’s then CEO, Dennis Wise, to lend this project a little star power. He had never held a coaching position before taking over the club’s Primavera (Under-19s) side in 2023. Yet we should be cautious of oversimplifying. Fàbregas’s involvement has layers.
