Bayer Leverkusen extends contracts of CEO Carro to 2029 and sporting director Rolfes to 2031

Contract extensions confirmed

Bayer Leverkusen has extended the contracts of its two top executives ahead of the new Bundesliga season. The shareholders' committee of the club's football GmbH approved the early extensions for CEO Fernando Carro, 62, through June 2029, and sporting director Simon Rolfes through June 2031. Carro has held the CEO post since July 2018, while Rolfes moved into the sporting director role that same year and joined the management board in 2022. Rolfes played ten years for the club and served as captain before moving into management.

Werner Wenning, chairman of the shareholders' committee, praised the duo in a club statement.

Fernando Carro and Simon Rolfes have developed Bayer 04 outstandingly in recent years. The greatest sporting successes in our club's history are just as much the result of their work as the sustainable development of the entire club.

The 2024 Double and what followed

Under coach Xabi Alonso, Leverkusen won the 2024 Bundesliga title without a single defeat and lifted the DFB-Pokal, completing the Double. The club also won the Supercup and narrowly missed the Europa League final, falling just short of a Treble. The following season, 2025, Bayer finished as Bundesliga runners-up under Alonso. In 2026, the club slipped to sixth place.

New coach, renewed ambition

Leverkusen enters the new season with Spanish coach Carles Martinez, the third head coach in three years. Article 4 identifies Kasper Hjulmand as the coach during the 2026 sixth-place finish, while Articles 2 and 3 do not name him. Carro, speaking in an interview with the Kölner Stadtanzeiger and the Kölnische Rundschau, said he wants the club to mount another title challenge soon.

I have always said 2028 or 2029, but I would have nothing against it if it were already 2027.

Carro also called for more competitive variety at the top of German football, telling the newspapers that the Bundesliga urgently needs more variety at the top. He set a baseline target of consistent top-four finishes domestically and a place among the best 16 teams in Europe, adding that after sixth place the club must return to its usual level.

Rolfes sets long-term vision

Rolfes echoed the ambition in the club's announcement, framing the extensions as a commitment to structural stability rather than short-term results.

We want to set up Bayer 04 permanently so that we can regularly measure ourselves against the best teams in Europe and compete for the greatest sporting successes.

The extensions come at a pivotal moment for the club, which has cycled through three coaches since Alonso's departure and is seeking to reestablish the consistency that delivered the 2024 Double. With Carro and Rolfes now secured long-term, the next test arrives with Martinez on the touchline when the new Bundesliga campaign begins.