Como soccer team is attracting more than just celebrities to Italy’s famous lake

ROME (AP) — George Clooney’s villa is a 20-minute drive up the lake shore road from Como’s stadium.

Kate Beckinsale was a spectator in the stands last weekend.

Celebrity spottings and weddings have long been a pastime on Italy’s famous lake, which is known for its majestic views of the Alps.

Now there’s another reason to visit: The local soccer team is making rapid progress in its first season back in the top division in more than two decades.

Since Indonesian tobacco billionaire brothers Roberto Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono purchased the club five years ago in Serie D, the club has also been attracting soccer celebrities.

Como coach Cesc Fabregas and former France striker Thierry Henry — both World Cup winners and former teammates at Arsenal — are minority owners.

“We chose to invest in Como because investing exclusively in soccer comes with unpredictable risks,” said Mirwan Suwarso, who manages Como for the Hartonos. “Here we’re relying on a brand: We want to make this the top soccer tourism destination in the world.”

The heavy foreign investment has attracted a mix of well-known veteran players and rising prospects.

Veterans such as former Liverpool and Napoli goalkeeper Pepe Reina and former Barcelona captain Sergi Roberto. Plus former France and Real Madrid center back Raphael Varane, who then decided to retire but plans to remain with the club in another role.

Alberto Moreno, a 32-year-old left back, has played every minute of the opening six Serie A matches after signing as a free agent in July after leaving Villarreal — having previously played for Liverpool.

Then there’s Nico Paz, a 20-year-old attacking midfielder signed from Real Madrid; and Alieu Fadera, 22-year-old Gambian winger signed from Genk.

Add in Como-born striker Patrick Cutrone (formerly of AC Milan), who is tied atop the league scoring chart with four goals in six games, and it’s clear that there’s a mix of players not usually seen at a promoted club.

“Como is the revelation of the season,” Napoli coach Antonio Conte said before the Serie A leader hosts Como on Friday.

In Como’s last three matches, it held Champions League side Bologna to 2-2, won at Champions League side Atalanta 3-2 and beat Hellas Verona 3-2 to move into the top half of the table in 10th.

“The ambitions are high,” Cutrone said. “But the first objective remains avoiding relegation. Then we’ll see about the rest.”

The club is collaborating with Lake Como Tourism to help attract more visitors to the area. Already 40% of Como’s tickets are being purchased by foreigners.

“But we also wanted to award our most devoted fans who have been season-ticket holders since Como was in Serie C,” Suwarso said in Corriere della Sera. “For them, we haven’t increased the ticket prices from last season.”

Visiting the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona will be extra special for Fabregas, who will be facing one of his former coaches.

Fabregas played under Conte for two seasons at Chelsea. They won the English Premier League together the first year and the FA Cup the second season.

But before the trophies came, Conte told Fabregas when he arrived in London that he might want to think about finding another club because the coach didn’t anticipate using him much.

“It was the first time in my career, or maybe in my life, that someone had said something like that to me,” Fabregas said this week, adding he took the message as motivation to work harder.

“And after four months I was playing all the time,” Fabregas said. “He made me suffer in training. I learned a ton from him. It was a different method — a type of soccer I had never experienced before. Now I use his teachings when things get tough. He taught me a lot and I thank him for that.”

Conte added, “I always thought he could be a coach. He was curious and was always trying to learn.”

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Como's Patrick Cutrone plays the ball following the Serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Como at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 24 , 2024. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Como's Cesc Fabregas smiles following the Serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Como at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 24 , 2024. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Como's Gabriel Strefezza celebrates after scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Como at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 24 , 2024. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Como's Patrick Cutrone kisses the jersey as he celebrates scoring during a Serie A soccer match between Como and Verona at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium in Como, northern Italy, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024.(Antonio Saia/LaPresse via AP)

Como's Andrea Belotti celebrates scoring during a Serie A soccer match between Como and Verona at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium in Como, northern Italy, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024.(Antonio Saia/LaPresse via AP)

Como's Nico Paz, right, and Sergi Roberto celebrate after Paz scored during the Serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Como at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 24 , 2024. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Como's Cesc Fabregas is congratulated following the Serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Como at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, Italy, Tuesday, Sept. 24 , 2024. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Como's Patrick Cutrone celebrates scoring during a Serie A soccer match between Como and Verona at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium in Como, northern Italy, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024.(Antonio Saia/LaPresse via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)