Fernando Carro made “Vizekusen” the title club. In the “Phrasenmäher” podcast, the club boss talks about the best decisions of his career and reveals how many numbers he has saved in his cell phone. He once got Cristiano Ronaldo an advertising deal.
Without him, Leverkusen would not be champions today. In 2018, Fernando Carro (60) came to Bayer as club boss and turned “Vizekusen” into a real title club. In the “Bild” podcast “Phrasenmäher” the Spaniard talks about it…
…which headline he would like to read this season:
His choices:
A: Bayer repeats the double!
B: Alonso, Wirtz and Tah extend!
C: Sensational change at the top of the board: Bayern brings in Carro as Eberl’s new boss!
Carro laughs: “Well, then I’ll definitely take the first one with the double. I’ll sign it immediately.”
And if he could wish for one himself? Carro: “Then it would be: ‘Crazy! Bayer Leverkusen are Champions League winners!’ Many people tell me that we cannot top our success with the unbeaten championship, the cup victory and the Europa League final. Bayer has already been to the final once (2002 in a 2-1 defeat against Real Madrid). If I could voice a dream, I would use this line.”
… how many messages he received after the championship:
“About 2000. It took me a week to answer everything.”
Who gave the nicest congratulations from Bavaria? Carro: “Jan Dreesen definitely congratulated, and I could mention a WhatsApp from Oliver Kahn. He won’t be mad if I tell you this because I joked about it with him at the European Championships when Spain played Germany. Oliver wrote: You can be happy that I’m no longer at Bayern, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so easy…” (laughs)
… how many numbers he has saved in his cell phone:
“There are 7990 numbers. The most important ones are those of my wife, my three children and my mother.”
… why he secretly followed Bayer training before his job interview:
Before Bayer, Carro was at Bertelsmann for 24 years, working his way up from the head of a specialist publisher of driving school books to the board of directors. After he left the company, a headhunter asked him about a job in business. When Carro said that he was interested in the sport, contact with Bayer came about. Before the first meeting, he secretly watched the training: “I took an hour. My wife asked me if I was crazy, but I wanted to get a feel for how the players train and the coach operates.”
… which of his decisions as Bayer boss was the best:
“The best decision was to make Simon Rolfes sports director under Rudi Völler in 2018.”
That was also a hard decision because Jonas Boldt had to leave. Carro: “I say that was the best. Hard is not my issue.”
… how he got Ronaldo an advertising deal:
Carro once introduced Cristiano Ronaldo as a testimonial for the watch platform Chrono 24: “Back then I made contact with his advisor Jorge Mendes. Ronaldo then even invested in the company.”
He organized an audience with the Spanish King Felipe for Bertelsmann patriarch Liz Mohn. Who would he like to meet himself? “I could choose many. Michelle and Barack Obama, the Pope maybe. Of those who are no longer alive, Nelson Mandela. These are fascinating personalities.”
… what news about Karl-Heinz Rummenigge Xabi Alonso wrote:
On October 5, 2022, Bayer introduced Xabi Alonso as their new coach. In the phrase mower, Carro reads out the text message that the Bayern boss then wrote to him:
“Hello Fernando, you made a very good choice with Xabi. He’s a great guy, very intelligent and clever and has had the best coaches in the world during his career. All the best and success! Kind regards, Kalle.”
…his leadership style:
“I’m not a diplomat and I have a very loud voice, you can hear me through walls. At Bertelsmann we really had to replace my office door and install a thicker one because otherwise my conversations would have been heard everywhere.”
In what situations does it get loud? Carro: “When things don’t work out the way I imagine, colleagues are unprepared – or the referee doesn’t decide the way I see it. Oliver Mintzlaff warned me during the games during Corona times when I was pissed off in Leipzig: “Fernando, you can hear everything and everything is being filmed here: Be careful!”
How is it today? Carro: “As long as Rudi Völler was there, I said: He’ll do the role of the rager and I can be relaxed. When he left, someone had to take over his role…”
… which is how Max Eberl scored points with him:
Carro: “I really liked his PK, in which he said: Talking is silver, silence is gold. What he said was extremely top.”
Carro had previously said at a fan meeting that he “didn’t think anything of Max Eberl, absolutely nothing.” What is the relationship like today after the debate? Carro: “We can still negotiate hard and criticize each other, but we have a resilient relationship. That’s okay.”
…whether he would trust Bayern as boss:
“If you ask me that, I can do anything,” says Carro. Would it appeal to him? “No, I’m very happy where I am now and I’m basically someone who doesn’t have this urge to constantly change.”
