Carro's outspoken ambition takes Leverkusen to new heights - ESPN

The Bayer Leverkusen players and coaching staff had rather important on-pitch matters to preoccupy them last week, but that didn't stop the Werkself bringing a visible and sparkling presence to New York City.

When you've won three different trophies — the Bundesliga's Meisterschale, the DFB-Pokal and the DFL-Supercup — in the space of just a few frenetic months, why not display them from the spectacular Manhattan skyline as part of a specially arranged trophy tour in a bid to attract new fans? Club owner Bayer's consumer health headquarters also happen to be located across the Hudson in New Jersey, so the trip ticked many boxes.

It was a busy week in the Big Apple for the face of the club throughout the trip. Fernando Carro has been Leverkusen's CEO since 2018, Barcelona born, but Germany based throughout his professional career.

A self-described sports fanatic, Carro was never a professional footballer but a regular attendee of matches in the standing section at the top of Camp Nou, and his mother taught Spanish to, among others, Austrian football great Hans Krankl and Bundesliga coaching legend Udo Lattek during their time with the Blaugrana.

Carro himself attended a German school in the Catalan capital and sat his Abitur (prestigious final exams) there. Little could he have imagined what that immersion in a foreign language would ultimately lead to.

«I wanted to be independent of my parents, and the studies I did, didn't exist in Spain,» Carro told ESPN last week in New York. «I took engineering and economics, so I went to Germany and stayed for a long time, actually until today. I worked there for a long time with a media company, so Germany is my second home.»

Having spoken to former and current employees of Bayer