Como’s position on their Argentine playmaker was spelled out by TEAMtalk on 28 October: no sale mid-season, no negotiation before the summer, and €100m-plus as the opening number for anyone from outside Italy. Cesc Fàbregas’s side regard the 22-year-old as central to their first Champions League campaign and have no plan to weaken the squad in the middle of it. Chelsea are described as the most active admirer, with Manchester United and Arsenal also keeping tabs on the playmaker.
The timing of the Premier League push is not accidental. Paz has carried his Serie A form into Europe and his profile has risen sharply this autumn, pushing clubs that had been monitoring him to accelerate their planning.
The numbers back the hype. His 2025-26 Serie A campaign returned 13 goals and 8 assists in 40 appearances, according to TEAMtalk, with a career tally of 23 assists in 86 games at Como.
The Real Madrid clause in the background
The valuation is the easy part of the story. The harder part is who controls Paz’s future. Football Italia reports that Real Madrid held a cheap re-sign option worth around €10m last summer but agreed to let Paz stay at Como for €60m, with the Spanish club keeping a unilateral buy-back option on his federative rights for the 2027-2028 season.
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That clause can be triggered next summer for €80m, and recent reporting in Italy and Spain suggests Real Madrid are weighing it seriously. A Premier League bid in January would have to clear both Como’s refusal and the shadow of Madrid’s option, with no guarantee that beating one would see off the other.
Not a selling club anymore
The Como the Premier League is dealing with is not the one it was two years ago. Fàbregas has built a side that reached the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history, and the Spaniard has been open about wanting Paz to stay.
“He’s a very important player for our growth. We’ve grown with him, and he’s grown with us,” Fàbregas told Sky Sport in May, in comments carried by Football Italia, adding that Como want the Argentine to remain beyond the current season.
For Chelsea, who have been scouting Paz most extensively, and for Manchester United, who are weighing his profile against the uncertainty around Bruno Fernandes, the January answer from Lake Como is a straight no. Paz is under contract until June 2028, which leaves two realistic windows for a move: next summer, when Real Madrid will have first call for €80m, or 2027-28, once the buy-back has either been used or allowed to expire.
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