A year ago they were on the brink of complete collapse, with a record signing from the Bundesliga and the son of a German nightmare: the yo-yo team suddenly spending millions

Frosinone are back in Serie A once again and more attractive than ever. Why that is and why there is great hope that, for the first time, they will stay in the top flight for longer than a year.

"My time here will always be special in my life. Now I have the chance to play in a country where I have always wanted to play," said Romano Schmid when his departure from Werder Bremen was made official. The Austria international is leaving the Bundesliga for Serie A and moving to Italy, his dream destination in football.

At 26, Schmid wants to take the next step in his career. For a player of his calibre, a move to Italy would usually point towards an established Serie A club in the bracket of Atalanta Bergamo, Fiorentina, Lazio Rome or Bologna. Or even Como, who after their rapid rise have already reached the Champions League.

Instead, Schmid is joining Frosinone Calcio. The newly promoted side have gone straight back down in each of their previous three seasons in Italy's top flight and have become something of a yo-yo club over the past decade. Frosinone have spent far longer on the second tier than the first.

Romano Schmid is set for a major pay rise in Frosinone

At first glance, Schmid swapping the Werder shirt for Frosinone's does look surprising and above all not like a sporting step up. A closer look makes it easier to understand. Their new club from the town of just over 40,000 people southeast of Rome are effectively newly rich. Schmid is said to be set to earn €3.5 million per year in Frosinone, a clear financial improvement on his Bremen deal, which apparently brought him only around €1.5 million annually.

Frosinone's new financial muscle comes from the US investment fund Clara Vista. Already the majority shareholder at newly promoted English top-flight side Ipswich Town, Clara Vista bought into Frosinone this summer. For €41.5 million, the fund acquired 80 per cent of the shares in the Italian club, while the other 20 per cent remain with president Maurizio Stirpe. The 68-year-old, a native of Frosinone, has run his beloved club for 23 years and wants to continue for at least another two. Stirpe is deeply rooted in Frosinone. The stadium is named after his father Benito, who led the club as president in the 1960s.

"Clara Vista have liquidity that was not available to us," Stirpe junior said about the investor's arrival. As a child of the club, he is naturally keen to make sure Clara Vista do not strike out on their own. "We will work together to continue the path of recent years and expand it through the ideas the fund brings in. Clara Vista complement our expertise perfectly: they have what we need - and vice versa. We have to avoid operational overlap," said Stirpe.

The son of a German nightmare plays in Frosinone

Fresh money is, of course, the main thing Clara Vista are bringing to Frosinone. In the long term, some of it is meant to go into infrastructure and the youth sector. Their youth work has already produced results, with goalkeeper Lorenzo Palmisani and left-back Gabriele Bracaglia, two genuine home-grown players, serving as cornerstones of promotion last season. The 20-year-old midfield talent Matteo Cichella, who made himself indispensable over the course of the last campaign, was poached from big neighbours Roma at U19 level. Then there is Filippo Grosso, who took his first steps in the first team at 19 after arriving at 17 from the Juventus youth set-up. He is the son of Fabio Grosso, who abruptly ended Germany's summer fairytale in the 2006 semi-final and worked as coach in Frosinone from 2021 to 2023.

Much of Clara Vista's money is also meant to flow in the short and medium term into the footballing present, namely the current squad. Romano Schmid, for whom a base fee of €8.5 million is reportedly going to Werder, with the overall package including bonus payments apparently rising to as much as €10.5 million, immediately became Frosinone's record signing. They have never spent more on a player and, in any case, the Italians have never previously committed so much money to transfers as they already have by this point this summer. Alongside Schmid, midfielders Luis Hasa (€2.5 million) and Alessio Zerbin (€2 million), both from Napoli, as well as left-back Aleksa Terzic, signed from RB Salzburg for €2.5 million, mean three other transfers from 2026 rank among the six most expensive signings in Frosinone's history.

There is more. Another Austria international arrived in Florian Grillitsch, who left Braga on a free transfer and is well known in Germany from his Bundesliga days with Hoffenheim and Bremen. Kevin Akpoguma, a Hoffenheim stalwart, has also signed for Frosinone, while Anouar El Azzouzi arrived from third-tier relegated side Fortuna Düsseldorf.

Will Frosinone stay in Serie A for longer than a year for the first time?

Frosinone are building towards something they have never managed before. After each of their previous three promotions, they went straight back down to Serie B a year later. In 2015, the club, who had previously spent a long time bouncing between the third and fourth tiers, reached Italy's top division for the first time. They had surged from Serie C to Serie A with back-to-back promotions, but they went straight back down after finishing 19th. The next promotion followed only two years later, but in 2018/19 they were once again hopeless in the top flight. Their third and, so far, last attempt to stay up at that level came closest of all. On the final matchday of the 2023/24 season, Frosinone lost 1-0 to Udinese Calcio, when a 0-0 would have been enough to survive.

Then came May 2025, when total collapse loomed and they nearly dropped into the third tier for the first time since 2014. Frosinone finished 15th in the second division and only narrowly escaped the relegation play-offs, and only because direct rivals Brescia Calcio had four points deducted.

A year later, they finished second and returned to Serie A, something nobody could have expected. But coach Massimiliano Alvini, appointed after the near-relegation in 2025, pulled it off. The 56-year-old spent years working his way up through small Italian clubs and is now also set to remain in place under the new investors. Clara Vista's arrival has brought another key effect too: Alvini has so far been able to keep the core of the promotion-winning team together, with no key player sold yet. Without the new financial backing, that would have been difficult.

Investor money strengthens Frosinone's hand in the transfer market

"Sales used to be a necessity; now we are no longer completely under that financial pressure," president Stirpe emphasised. The case of promotion hero Fares Ghedjemis shows Frosinone's new transfer-market creed perfectly clearly. The 23-year-old Algerian, signed in 2024 for just €300,000 from the French third division, was Frosinone's attacking standout last season with 15 goals and three assists.

Now Ghedjemis has made it into Algeria's World Cup squad and several well-known clubs are chasing him. Frosinone would probably have sold him long ago in the past, but the Italians reportedly viewed the €7 million most recently offered by Monaco as far too low. Celtic and Rangers, the two Scottish giants, are also said to be pushing hard for Ghedjemis, but their efforts may be doomed to fail. Frosinone, where the right winger is still under contract until 2028, reportedly do not want to let him go for less than €21 million. With investor money behind them, holding that line is naturally much easier.

For now, then, Frosinone are trying to stay out of the lift going down. The long-term aim could be to reach the point where it is no surprise when players of Romano Schmid's calibre choose Frosinone.