Como midfielder Jayden Osei Addai enters the new pre-season cycle as a peripheral figure in a club that has stopped thinking small. While Fàbregas's side drew 2-2 against Paris FC in a July friendly — a result that confirmed the lariani's attacking intent but offered no reported involvement from Osei Addai — the 20-year-old's situation is defined less by what he does on the pitch and more by what the club is building around him.
The so-what is straightforward: Como have qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history, and the infrastructure decisions they are making this summer — pursuing a defender of Jhon Lucumi's calibre, reportedly rebuffed in a move for Chelsea's Trevoh Chalobah — signal a club operating at a level where a player rated 50 out of 100 by internal metrics, with a potential ceiling of 68, is unlikely to command meaningful minutes. The gap between where Osei Addai is and where Como now need their squad to be is not a matter of opinion; it is a structural fact.
His 2025-26 season numbers tell a story of limited but not invisible contribution: three goals across 12 appearances, an average rating of 6.90. For a 20-year-old midfielder, that goal return is creditable. The rating, however, sits in the functional rather than the impressive range, and 12 matches suggests a rotation role at best — one that becomes harder to maintain when the club is actively recruiting at the top end of the European market.
Como's decision to ban headers in their youth academy, announced this week and explained by club figures on developmental and medical grounds, is a reminder that the lariani are thinking in decades, not just transfer windows. It is a progressive, considered club. That same considered approach, applied to the first team, means Osei Addai will need to demonstrate something beyond his current profile to earn a place in a Champions League rotation.
The friendly draw with Paris FC, in which Álvaro Morata went scoreless, suggests Fàbregas is still calibrating his attacking combinations. There is pre-season time remaining, and a 20-year-old with three Serie A goals already on his record is not without argument. But Como's ambitions have outpaced the modest ceiling his current data projects, and unless Osei Addai forces a reassessment in training or in the matches still to come, this summer is more likely to end with a loan than a breakthrough.