Jacobo Ramón arrived at Como in September 2025 with little senior football behind him at Real Madrid and an unfamiliar championship in front of him. Twelve months later, the 21-year-old defender is speaking as a regular in a team that has reached the Champions League, and as a player increasingly comfortable with the demands of Serie A.
He still describes the move with the gratitude of someone who understood the scale of the opportunity. Cesc Fabregas contacted him and made his faith clear, but Ramón did not expect to become such an immediate fixture in the side. The season that followed changed his standing. “I have improved enormously and grown a great deal,” he said, reflecting on a Como campaign that exceeded even the club’s considerable ambitions.
Champions League football was not necessarily the expectation when he joined, despite the project’s obvious intent. Como’s route there, he said, had been remarkable, completed by a strong finish and earned by a group which now considers itself among the leading sides. Their European debut against Leipzig only strengthened that feeling: the squad had waited eagerly for the occasion and entered the match with exceptional motivation. Ramón, though, retains perspective. The league phase contains eight games, and Como have only started that part of the journey.
Como’s place in a more open Serie A
The defender has also seen a different Italian league from the one he encountered in his first months. He believes recent rule changes have made matches faster and more continuous, asking more physically of players while producing a more attractive spectacle for supporters. In his view, there have been fewer goalless matches, more goals and a greater attacking impulse across the division.
Como’s own record illustrates the shift. A year ago, the team regularly finished games without conceding; this season they have yet to register a clean sheet. Ramón does not present that as an excuse, merely as a consequence of a league in which the ball is in play more often and the contests are more demanding.
For a player raised in Spain, the title race is another distinction. La Liga has several strong clubs, he noted, but the contest tends to settle around Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. Italy, he feels, has six or seven credible challengers, with Como making it eight. That breadth should ensure points are dropped throughout the season.
Como have already had their own warning in Frosinone, where their first defeat arrived. Fabregas had identified the trip as one of the five most difficult away assignments on the calendar, and Ramón accepted that his side fell short in concentration and intensity. Frosinone’s wide players and striker caused damage, while their goalkeeper produced an outstanding display. It was an entertaining match, he said, but also a reminder that one loss means little with so much of the campaign still to play.
Roma await at Como on the return from that defeat, and Ramón expects a major occasion. He considers Roma a powerful side with Scudetto ambitions. Inter remain the early benchmark after winning by a clear margin last season, improving their squad and beginning this campaign well, but Como intend to make life difficult for them. Internally, however, the message is restraint: win the next match, then see where the team stands in May. “Piano piano,” he said in Italian.
Ramón also defended the role Fabregas is trying to play in Italian football. He does not see his coach as a disruptive figure, even if such a visible approach will not appeal to everyone. Rather, he believes Fabregas has genuine affection for Italy and admiration for its football, and wants Serie A to be watched more widely through a more appealing style of play. Ramón pointed to Roma’s meeting with Inter as an example of the type of match the league should seek to showcase.
A Spanish ambition shaped in Como
International football remains an important part of Ramón’s horizon. He watched Spain’s World Cup triumph in a bar in Gandia, close to Valencia, celebrating with friends by the sea. Wearing a Spain shirt carrying two stars is, he admitted, a powerful reminder of what he wants next: a place in the senior national team.
He knows the competition is fierce. Spain, in his words, are the best national side in the world, while Pau Cubarsí and Dean Huijsen are younger defenders already competing in the same area of the pitch. Yet Ramón believes Spain’s selection culture gives young players a chance. Form matters more than a birth certificate: if a player performs, he plays.
Como can help make that case. The club’s results and football have brought greater visibility, offering Ramón a platform that did not exist when he was on the margins in Madrid. He also pushed back gently on the idea that Como lack Italian representation, noting the arrivals of Italy internationals Ricci and Kean, as well as Liberali, who is involved with the Under-21s. In his view, the Italian presence is growing gradually.
Italy’s own national-team struggles surprise him. Ramón sees many Italian players of high quality and could not easily explain why that level has not always transferred to the international stage. The side that faced Belgium, he argued, contained plenty of talent. His verdict was optimistic: Italy’s future is secure and the country will return to the top.
Spain’s success, across men’s and women’s football and eight competitive categories, comes from long-term work in youth development, Ramón said. Young players are taught technical discipline and clear ideas early, rather than being shaped through a short-term plan. That groundwork means 18- and 19-year-olds can step into the Under-21 environment without looking out of place. With Spain’s Under-21 team, his immediate aim is qualification for next summer’s European Championship, followed by a push for the podium and an Olympic place.
Life in Italy has changed him beyond the pitch. Having always lived in Madrid with his parents, he had to leave his comfort zone and establish new routines. The experience has helped him mature, he said, and he feels settled. His mother has since moved in with him, making his tentative efforts in the kitchen rather less essential, although she is beginning to adapt to Italian food through pasta and pesto.
For now, there is no desire to look beyond Como, even with Real Madrid retaining a buy-back option and Nico Paz remaining at the club. Ramón’s answer on his future was uncomplicated: he is very happy in Como, the season has only begun, and his attention belongs to making it a strong one. That is the position of a player who has found both minutes and meaning in Italy, while knowing that the next chapter will be earned week by week.
