Nico Paz, the Tenerife-born Argentine who asked Real Madrid to wait

Nico Paz

Photo: Bryan Berlin / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Born	September 8, 2004 Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Occupation	Footballer
Individual awards	UEFA Champions League · La Liga · Supercopa de España · Serie A Best Under-23 Player · Serie A Best Midfielder · Serie A Team of the Year · Serie A Rising Star of the Month

Real Madrid wanted him back, and Nico Paz said not yet. Clubs rarely let a player overrule them like that, and Madrid almost never do. They had raised him, sold him to a newly promoted Italian side, kept the right to buy him back, and when the moment came to use it, the player asked for one more year by Lake Como. Madrid agreed. Paz now plays on a deadline he set himself: every match for Como also counts as an audition for the club that already knows him better than anyone, and that can still call him home.

The other tension is about where he belongs. Paz was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and grew up in Spanish football, yet he plays for Argentina, the country of his father. That choice stopped being abstract on a summer night in New Jersey, when Spain beat Argentina in the World Cup final while he watched from the bench.

His birth on 8 September 2004 in Tenerife came with football already in the family. His father, Pablo Paz, was an Argentine international defender who played at the 1998 World Cup and spent much of his career in Spain; his mother is Spanish. Nico started at San Juan, a local club, moved to CD Tenerife’s academy and in 2016, aged 11, joined Real Madrid’s academy, La Fábrica. He did not arrive as a playmaker. He began as a centre-back, was pushed up to centre-forward, then out to the wing, and only later settled in the space behind the striker, where his height, 1.85 metres, and his left foot made unusual sense together.

Argentina noticed early. He was first called up to the senior squad in March 2022 while still playing youth football in Madrid, helped the under-20 side win the Maurice Revello Tournament in France that summer and made the preliminary list for the World Cup in Qatar without reaching the final squad. Asked later why he chose Argentina over Spain, he answered plainly: he was born in Spain and loves both countries, but chose Argentina for the country itself, for the way football is lived there and for his father.

His Real Madrid first team career was short and full of glimpses. He made his debut in the Champions League against Braga in November 2023, coming on for Federico Valverde at the Santiago Bernabéu, then scored against Napoli later that month in a 4–2 win. Toni Kroos said publicly that the teenager should be training with the first team every day. He was a squad member as Madrid won La Liga and the Champions League in 2023–24, but eight first-team appearances were all a midfield of that weight could offer him.

In August 2024 Madrid sold him to Como, newly promoted to Serie A, on a four-year contract and kept a buy-back option. Cesc Fàbregas, the club’s coach, had asked for him by name. The move looked like a loan in disguise. It turned into the making of him. He scored six goals with nine assists in his first Serie A season and was named the league’s best under-23 player. He inherited the number 10, opened the 2025–26 campaign with a free-kick goal and an assist against Lazio, and helped Como beat Juventus for the first time since 1952. By May he had twelve league goals, Serie A’s best midfielder award and a place in the Team of the Year, and Como had finished fourth, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time.

The case against the fairy tale is worth hearing. Fàbregas built a team that runs through Paz, and the freedom he enjoys at Como is the very freedom Madrid’s midfield does not hand out. The buy-back clause has also been read as a bargain that let Madrid hold on to his future while Como paid for his development. The World Cup supplied the hardest evidence. He made Argentina’s 26-man squad despite a knee scare in the spring, came on for Lionel Messi for ten minutes against Algeria and started against Jordan, then sat unused through all five knockout matches. Argentina used him as an option, not as the answer, and on 19 July Argentina lost the final 1–0 to Spain after extra time.

The decision on his club future had come mid-tournament. On 29 June, two days after the Jordan match, Madrid, Como and Paz announced that he would stay in Italy for 2026–27 at his own request, with Madrid keeping a one-sided option to bring him back for 2027–28. “After many weeks of thought, I’ve decided that the best option for my career at this time is to continue at Como for another year,” he wrote. José Mourinho had just taken over at the Bernabéu.

The autumn has made the choice look sound. Paz set up two goals in a 4–1 win over RB Leipzig on Como’s Champions League debut in September, then scored three times for Argentina in the space of a week in early October, against Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Benin. On 21 October he scored twice and assisted once as Como beat Manchester United 4–1, the youngest player to score and assist against United in the competition since Alan Dzagoev in 2009. He called it one of the most special nights of his life and his career.

The deadline has not moved. Madrid’s option runs for the 2027–28 season, and Spanish reports in late October already had the club weighing whether to use it. Before that comes the rest of a Champions League campaign and a Serie A season with Como near the top of the table. Paz asked for one more year to prove he can carry a team. By next summer he will have done so in front of every club that matters, the one in Madrid included.

Tags: sports, athletes, footballers, Lionel Messi, Real Madrid, Cesc Fàbregas, Argentina national football team, Como 1907, Nico Paz