It is, at this point in time, a foregone conclusion that Real Madrid will buy Como star Nico Paz back for a meager nine million euros this summer transfer window after he established himself as arguably the best player in Serie A.
Paz is leading a Como charge to Champions League football as the clear star of the midfield, and though he is touted as a No. 10 and an attacking midfield playmaker, the reality is that the benefits and importance he has to Como go far beyond goals, assists, and attacking play.
His overall production in all phases is truly exceptional. Paz, in addition to a whopping 12 goals and 6 assists, is averaging more than three combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per game. He is an elite progressor of the ball, with his maurading runs from deep that eat up space so often serving as the impetus of all the big plays Como make in the game.
Nico Paz is more than a mere playmaker
Defensively, Paz puts many of the current Real Madrid crop to shame, averaging 2.5 tackles and even 0.8 interceptions per game as an underrated box to box workhorse who really solidifies his team. And all the while, Paz controls the games as the center piece of this Cesc Fabregas coached system, threading the needle with an uncanny intelligence for a young man of 21 years.
While Nico Paz is not Luka Modric incarnate, though his blonde hair bobs and the gears of his brain turn with his fleet feet, his all around quality is more fitting of a player in that creative wide center midfield role in a 4-3-3 than a fixed No. 10. Paz is more of the successor to Modric than another Martin Odegaard coming back to Real Madrid.
Because Paz is so adept at scoring and creating, it is easy to pin him into that playmaker archetype, and, like Modric, he has that about him. But he is so much more as a true midfielder, and the soft, technical touch he brings to the table, albeit with more industry, makes him a very different player from Arda Guler and then both Jude Bellingham and Fede Valverde on the opposite end of the spectrum. And dare we say anything of the upgrade he is over Franco Mastantuono.
Real Madrid have been craving this kind of midfielder, and a year after Modric's departure to AC Milan, which was a mistake by the Blancos, they could get young heir in the saddle - the missing piece to a midfield that has been deeply disappointing in 2025/26.
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