Carro used the time for meetings with senior representatives of North and South American sports business, visited the stands of La Liga and Serie A and also mixed among the 2,000 participants as a passionate networker at the congress centre of the rainy city.
The senior conversational partners of the Spaniard included Carlos Sanchez, managing director of Fox Deportes, Italy's Serie A boss Luigi di Servio plus Julie Uhrmann, who as the CEO of Angel City FC Is currently responsible for probably the most exciting women's football project in the USA founded by stars such as Natalie Portman and Serena Williams. At the Congress there was also a meeting with Italy's World Cup winner and Serie A ambassador Alessandro Del Piero that included a presentation of a shirt.
"These trips are demanding," said Carro about the short journey to the south-east coast of the USA. "But it's important to think outside the box. At these events, you get a good insight into the global football market and a better feeling for the demands on a contemporary and successful league or club management."
Carro, a keen advocate for a strong global presence for German clubs, also gained important thoughts about the future of the Bundesliga: "The Bundesliga continues to be one of the top leagues in the world. It offers quality, spectacle and stadium atmosphere that is unequalled. The Bundesliga does not have to hide from anyone as the number two in terms of worldwide spectator statistics. But this status quo is not set in stone. Our competitors are not asleep."
Carro, a member of the supervisory committee of the DFL subsidiary Bundesliga International, sees a key role for the future competitiveness of Germany's top flight with the crucial input from a strategic partner at the DFL general meeting on 11 December: "If the Bundesliga experience is to remain of such high quality as it was before then we have to face up to global competition, be on the ball and innovative, invest smartly in our product and, above all, be brave at the right points and open to new ideas. But that requires the means, resources and more expertise. A strategic partner would be enormously important for the future viability of the Bundesliga."
Carro was joined on the trip to the USA by communications director Holger Tromp as well as Leonardo Giammarioli, the new head of internationalisation at Bayer 04. The small Leverkusen delegation was supported by the Mexican PR agency Extreme PR. The Bayer 04 boss fulfilled interview requests from the broadcasters TUDN (rights holder for the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League in the USA) and CBS Sports plus the US business portal Sportico.
Kicking off the new season with a fresh look: Bayer 04, in collaboration with sportswear manufacturer New Balance, has unveiled the official kit for Leverkusen’s e-Sports players for the coming season. The jersey is now available from the Bayer 04 online shop and the Fanwelt.
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Paulo Sergio and Bayer 04 have enjoyed close ties since the Werkself training camp in his native Brazil last summer. The club legend is in charge of the Bayer 04 Soccer Academy, which opened in the summer of 2025, and he has also been at this year’s training camp in the Weimarer Land. As well as interacting with the many fans who travelled to the camp, the 1994 World Cup winner used the time to plan the next steps for the Academy together with club officials. In an interview with bayer04.de, Sergio spoke about the project’s future development, the upcoming visit by young Academy players to Leverkusen, and plans for the coming months in Germany and Brazil.
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A round-up of the Werkself training camp in the Weimarer Land, all in one place: in our daily blog you’ll find all the insights and updates from the day. Day five (Thursday 6 August) is as follows: The squad have the final open session of the training camp in the morning. After lunch, there will be a team event.
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A round-up of the Werkself training camp in the Weimarer Land, all in one place: in our daily blog you’ll find all the insights and updates from the day. Day four (Wednesday 5 August) is all about training. The day begins with a gruelling open training session – new signing Miguel Gutiérrez also takes part. A second session follows in the afternoon, this time behind closed doors.
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At the training camp in the Weimarer Land region, Bayer 04 head coach Carles Martínez and his long-standing assistant Pol García talk about their first few weeks with the Werkself, their expectations of their own work, the coaching staff and the squad, as well as the style of football they want the team to play. They emphasise the importance of a winning mentality within the team, comment on cultural and personal differences in the world of football, and outline their goals for the coming season...
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