At 17 he moved to Serie A, now a real South Tyrolean

“FC Südtirol has got a very good midfielder,” said ex-FCS coach Pierpaolo Bisoli before the match between Brescia and the White-Reds in mid-January. Although Bisoli was no longer coach at FC Südtirol, he came to the stadium because of his son Dimitri and spoke highly of Tommaso Arrigoni, who had been hired just a few days earlier and made his FCS debut in Brescia. Since then, the 30-year-old has been on the pitch in every match from the start and only missed the guest game in La Spezia because he was suspended. Arrigoni has become an integral part of the starting line-up.

“I am very happy that I made the decision to move to FC Südtirol in the winter,” said Arrigoni, who will be visiting Como with his new employer on Easter Monday (15 p.m.), at his former club. “I'm looking forward to my return. I was able to experience wonderful years in Como, it will be a very special game for me, that's for sure. I will see a lot of friends again,” said the midfielder, who played 2020 competitive games for Como between autumn 2023 and December 105.

“In my first year we won the Serie C championship – contrary to all predictions. For all the experts at the time, Alessandria was the absolute top favorite. In Serie B, as promoted teams, we easily managed to stay in the league,” recalled Arrigoni. The season for Como last year was much more difficult. “The expectations were high after the many well-known signings, but in the end we had to worry about staying in the league for a long time. It wasn't until the penultimate matchday that we secured our stay in Serie B. It has undoubtedly been a difficult year for us.”

The richest owners in Italian football Now Como is 4th in the table. and is 2 points behind second place, which means direct jump to Serie A. The Lombards want to get into the Italian football upper house; Como, the club with the richest owners in all of Italian football, does not lack the financial resources. Como is owned by the Indonesian tobacco company Djarum. Its owners Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono are the two richest people in Indonesia. Forbes lists Budi Hartono as the 2th richest in the world with a total fortune of $26 billion, and Michael Hartono as 75th with a total fortune of $24,9 billion. Arrigoni was never allowed to meet the Hartono brothers.

“Mirwan Suwarso is your manager, he takes care of everything,” explained the midfielder, who found out about the signing of world star Cesc Fabregas at the hotel during the training camp in the summer of 2022. “Sky Sport reported that Fabregas is moving to Como. We almost fell off our chairs when we heard about it. “It was a huge honor for us to have a teammate who has won everything there was to win,” said Arrigoni, describing the Catalan superstar as down-to-earth and humble. With former England international Dennis Wise as managing director and Thierry Henry as shareholder, Como exudes glitz and glamor from every pore, and not just because of the world-famous lake that attracts stars and starlets.

Tommaso Arrigoni came to South Tyrol in the winter and has now become an integral part of the midfield. © DLife/LO

FC Südtirol are clear outsiders in Como on Monday, but “we seemed to have no chance against Cremonese either, and we all know how it went,” Arrigoni smiled, looking at the sensational 3-0 win before the international break.

The midfielder is realistic enough to know that the only goal can be to stay in the league. “I don’t know how many more points we need. Maybe 5 or 6. We shouldn't start calculating now, that won't help. Series B is unpredictable. You win games that you think you will lose and vice versa. The sooner we have relegation in our pocket, the better it is. Because things can quickly become uncomfortable again if you lose two games.”

As a child we went on a skiing holiday to Val Gardena, now as a “Kalterer” on the Mendel Arrigoni moved to the FCS on loan in January. If the White-Reds manage to stay in the league, this will become a permanent commitment until the summer of 2026. As a child, Arrigoni went on a skiing holiday to South Tyrol. “We were in Val Gardena, I thought skiing was great, but now of course that’s no longer possible as a footballer.” Because he lives in Kaltern, he now takes his daughter skiing on the Mendel. “She’s only 3, but she’s already having a lot of fun on the skis.”

Arrigoni feels comfortable in South Tyrol. “I think that the FCS offers the perfect environment for a player to develop and achieve his best performance,” said the 30-year-old. “I knew sports director Paolo Bravo from our time together at Santarcangelo, which made the negotiations easy.”

When the negotiations between Como, FCS and Arrigoni became more and more concrete in December, Bisoli was already gone. The fired FCS coach had already known the midfielder when he was still a little boy. “I played with Dimitri Bisoli in the Cesena youth team when Pierpaolo Bisoli was coaching the professional team,” said Arrigoni, who was in the stadium when coach Bisoli made the jump to Serie B in 2009 and promotion to Serie A a year later , before he said goodbye to Cagliari.

Serie A debut at 17 Arrigoni himself made his Serie A debut as a 17-year-old in the 2011/12 season, in which he played a total of 13 first division games, 8 of them as a starting eleven. “I was catapulted into the world of the big boys, I, a boy from Cesena, was allowed to play for my hometown club in Serie A. It was like a dream.” Cesena was relegated to Serie B as bottom of the table despite players like Adrian Mutu, Eder, Antonio Candreva, Marco Parolo and Vincenzo Iaquinta.

Arrigoni was loaned to Tritium in Serie C, where a certain Daniele Casiraghi also played. In January he went back to Cesena, where Bisoli had now taken over the helm again. Arrigoni then began a long odyssey in Serie C before returning to Serie B with Como in 2021. He wants to play in the second division next season against Cesena, who have practically already secured the championship title in third division Group B. “Since I left Cesena I have never played there again. “I will play with FC Südtirol in Serie B against Cesena next season,” assured Arrigoni. To do this, the FCS has to stay in Serie B. This is additional motivation for Arrigoni.

Serie B Italy	SP	TV	P
1. Parma	34	59:32	70
2. As	34	54:37	67
3. Venice	34	62:39	64
4. Cremonese	34	43:28	60
5. Catanzaro	34	53:42	56
6. Palermo	34	58:48	52
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At 17 he moved to Serie A, now a real South Tyrolean

New winter signing Tommaso Arrigoni has quickly developed into an indispensable midfielder at FC Südtirol. We took a closer look at the 30-year-old.

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