COMO, Italy -- Como don't have a rich history of success. They don't have a full trophy cabinet or a state-of-the-art stadium. They don't have superstar players. Instead, they're making the most of what they do have to stand out from the pack: a lake, a picture-postcard location and a playground for the rich and famous.
Where other football clubs have been apprehensive about chasing tourists for fear of alienating local supporters, Como are cashing in. With their 12,000-capacity Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia just a few steps away from Lake Como and Hollywood royalty among those regularly jetting in and out, the club proudly market themselves as a "sports tourism destination."
The aim has been to build a team, but also a sustainable business around it. And it's working.
The change of direction off the pitch under Indonesian owners Djarum Group has coincided with spectacular success on it. Declared bankrupt twice since 2003, Como were playing in Italy's amateur fourth tier as recently as 2018-19. But after three promotions in six years, in 2024 they ended a 21-year wait to return to Serie A.
Manager Cesc FÃ bregas orchestrated a fourth-place finish last season, enough to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their 119-year history, and on Wednesday night, they welcomed Manchester United to their idyllic home nestled in the hills of Lombardy.
"It's definitely something that I was not expecting to see in my life," Elena Roda, a Como fan for more than 40 years, tells ESPN. "I still cannot really understand how we actually managed to get to the Champions League. It's definitely something that I was not expecting. I'm living this like a dream."
On Wednesday afternoon, the shopping trips and quiet coffees in Como's squares were interrupted by United fans breaking out into loud chants about former striker Andy Cole. Where there had been tourists holding maps and guidebooks around the southern tip of the lake on Tuesday, 24 hours later they had been replaced with football fans draped in Como blue streaming toward the stadium.
By Wednesday night, after braving lashing winds and pouring rain, it was the supporters dressed in blue, locals and tourists alike, who went home happy. On the most glamorous night in the club's history, rising star No. 10 Nico Paz channeled the electricity in the storm clouds above and Como celebrated a superb 4-1 win over Man United.
Como's remarkable rise began with an experiment that never got off the ground.
Taken over by Djarum Group in 2019, the initial idea was to fill the team with Indonesian youth players and broadcast the games at home.
"I was working for a television station and we just lost the rights to the Italian League," Como president Mirwan Suwarso tells ESPN. "At the time we had a project, a program, where Indonesian boys, national team players, were training in Birmingham and playing against academy teams in England.
"The ratings were comparable to that of the Premier League. So we thought it was a great idea to buy an Italian club and put the players in there."
But an unexpected promotion killed the idea and forced the owners into a rethink.
"Little did I know that three months after we bought it, the team got promoted into the third division, became professional, and you're no longer allowed to have foreign players," Suwarso said. "So the idea became obsolete. We had to pivot and we changed it into a documentary series. You can still find it on YouTube. Then when we got promoted into the second division, the costs became so high.
"We couldn't sustain it. We struggled. At that point in time, my owner said: 'We've got to turn this around into a business. Either we sell and find a buyer today to recoup our money or develop this into a business that becomes profitable for us and beneficial for the group.'
"There were offers coming in and the offers were good. It convinced them to say: 'Wait, if people are wanting to buy this, maybe there is a real business behind it.'"
That's where the lake comes in.
It's estimated that tourism at Lake Como brings in around €1.5 billion every year. Some locals trace the boom back to George Clooney buying a house on the lake in 2002. Robert Pattinson and Sylvester Stallone also own property in the small towns along the waterfront.
"The business here is not about just the football team," Suwarso says. "We're not strong enough to be that, but we should be a place where people want to come to have a good time and watch football while they're here.
"That's the beauty of it, because we are so small with only 83,000 people in the city. We knew the growth had to come from overseas."
A hotspot for holidays, Como have embraced football fans from all over the world keen to watch a game as part of their trip.
"It's quite strange being a local fan to see all these people coming to Como to the games and also buying a lot of jerseys and merchandising," Roda says. "We were not used to that, but we know that also that we have to embrace it. I think that it's something normal when a team becomes important. It's strange but we are getting accustomed to it."
The Isle of Wight fan chapter began when a group of friends visiting Milan realized neither of the city's two teams -- AC Milan and Inter Milan -- were playing, and instead made the 25-mile trip to watch Como. The Como Tartan Army in Scotland has 3,000 members.
"When we came here in 2019 before COVID, [the region had] maybe 1.9 million tourists," said Suwarso. "Last year, we had 5.6 million tourists. I wish I could say it was down to us, but there's a few big people that did things here like George Lucas making Star Wars, George Clooney having a house, and Logan Paul getting engaged here. Barack Obama has holidayed here, and Michael Jordan.
"They have elevated the allure of this place so much and we benefit from it."
Hugh Grant, Andrew Garfield, Kate Beckinsale, Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Adrien Brody, Benedict Cumberbatch and Terry Crews all have attended games. For those seeking a luxury tourism experience, the team operates a private members' club called The Club On The Lake. Located in an 18th-century villa a short walk from the stadium, it includes a rooftop lounge, Michelin-starred restaurant, library, music lounge and games room. Membership costs around €4,500 a year.
The Como Cup was created so there are games in July and August, when tourism is at its peak. Crystal Palace, Lens and Villarreal were among the teams competing last summer.
Attracting tourists comes with its own pressure, though. Visitors want to sample a football match in one of Europe's top leagues, but they also want to be entertained.
"If we are benefiting from the number of people that come here, we would love them to come to the stadium as well and watch a football match," Suwarso said. "But if the football is crap, why would they come and watch it? So we have to play attractive football.
"Lake Como is about serenity, tranquillity, but it's about beauty. So the football has to be attractive and beautiful. That's what Cesc FÃ bregas has built for us."
If the setting is key to Como's brand, then FÃ bregas -- head coach since November 2023 -- is the central figure when it comes to the football side. The Spaniard initially joined as a player in 2022 when the club were in Serie B before coaching the club's under-19s and B teams.
"We sat down one day with Mirwan and he asked me what was my plan, what was my vision," remembers FÃ bregas, who describes the starting point for Como's growth as "not just zero, but minus-10."
"I presented the whole thing about what we could achieve together and we put a plan to work. We tried to bring young players that nobody knew that much, we believed in them and they responded really well.
"Mirwan is taking care of things off the pitch and then he gave me the keys to the football zone. We work together as a team and trust each other. That's the most important thing."
Historically, Italian football is defensive and attritional. FÃ bregas, though, was educated at Barcelona, where style is everything. His ideas fit well in a city that oozes class and sophistication.
"When Cesc started coaching our youth team, I saw that the football was different," Suwarso said. "I watched one game, I think it was Como against Inter's youth team, and Cesc had a team with no defenders because we didn't have a youth team two years before that. And yet we were beating Inter in a way that's so attractive to watch.
"It convinced me to put him in charge of the first team earlier rather than later. ... We wanted to have a blueprint that he's created, the idea of the way we want to play. Football the Como way."
It's football that has elevated FÃ bregas' stock as a head coach and taken Como all the way to the Champions League. Now here, the club are using the opportunity to attract more new fans while also rewarding the ones who have been there from the start.
Ahead of their first league phase game against RB Leipzig -- a 4-1 win -- a number of directors gave up their tickets to allow some of the club's oldest supporters to attend.
For Manchester United's visit, a group of Como's most loyal fans who have followed the team through the divisions were invited onto the pitch to wave the Champions League banner before kickoff. It's a nod to the core fanbase at a time when Como are also utilizing their unique selling points to grow beyond the city they call home.
"Everyone buys into it," says FÃ bregas. "Sometimes fans have one idea, directors have another idea, staff have another idea and the city has another idea. We are the total package.
"I think this is very special and we need to continue like this. If we keep working hard, I think the story of Como will be very beautiful."
