by Omar Berrada and John Lennon: The chief executive seems to be joining Manchester United and the late Beatles superstar.
This is according to Berrada himself, the Moroccan who was born in Paris and was a boyhood Barcelona fan. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, owner and controller of 27.7% of football policy from Manchester City, has surprised the hierarchy of the Champions and is seen as a coup in the industry.
Berrada quoted a line from Lennon’s song, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) – “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” – as he recounted an interview with the EU Business School he transferred to campus Barcelona for one year but ended up staying in Catalonia for 13 before joining City in 2011.
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The initial decision was, in part, so he could “watch good football” in Barcelona while he graduated, which he did in 1999 before meeting his wife in his first job, for the telecommunications company Tiscali . From there Berrada was recruited to become Barça’s head of sponsorship in 2004. He was informed on the second day that Catalan was the club’s “official language” – so he learned it.
Seven years later, City headhunted Berrada to head international development. He became chief operating officer in 2016 and when United hired him in January he was working, as he had been since 2020, as COO for the 12 teams under the umbrella of the City Football Group.
Berrada’s departure for the fierce competitors around town came as a bombshell, the Observer A person familiar with the City executive has said. Berrada has been instrumental in building the super-slick operation at the Etihad Stadium but United face a huge challenge, according to Stefan Borsonformer financial adviser to City.
Borson first focuses on how Berrada has to manage the many potential chiefs: Ratcliffe himself; two chief lieutenants of the owner of Ineos, Sir Dave Brailsford and Jean-Claude Blanc; and the six Glazer brothers, the majority owners who lead the Florida-based executive co-chairmen Joel and Avram.
“The big challenge is the number of voices and opinions around the table,” says Borson. “Berrada has been appointed as CEO but there are two co-executive chairmen – something unusual right away. Most CEOs will not need to work under two heads, especially when they are not on the ground in the UK. Then you have a whole other infrastructure of Ratcliffe, Brailsford, Blanc.”
Ratcliffe has made one big decision without the relevant input of Berrada and Berrada is on a gardening holiday before the expected start of summer, which means he will have to watch tomorrow’s Derby from afar. He has appointed Dan Ashworth to head the football department – subject to agreeing compensation with Newcastle United.
The IS Observer he understands that Berrada was informed of the intention to hire Ashworth during discussions with Ratcliffe and the Glazers regarding his possible appointment as Chief Executive, and that he was in agreement with his opinion as to who should replace John Murtough in the job.
The Ratcliffe camp have also said they want to make United’s home the “Wembley of the North” by either refurbishing Old Trafford or building a new stadium on the site. “Look how prominent Ratcliffe is already,” says Borson.
“Obviously he’s talking to Andy Burnham [mayor of Greater Manchester] under the stadium. He’s hired a director of football and that’s probably before Berrada is in situ because he’s on gardening leave. Ashworth seems to have been told that he will have a lot of decision-making power. Therefore, the view would not help to be the ‘top dog’ for Berrada. That’s a challenge. He’s not invincible, and he obviously knew that before he took on the role.”
Berrada has the skills to tackle all of this, according to more than one person who has seen his work at City. He is characterized as admirable but not pushy and has expertise in player transfers and contracts. He also has an understanding of commercial opportunities and the systems, physical infrastructure and people in a club.
Initially driving City’s non-football business, deals brokered by Berrada included a multi-million pound deal in 2014 that made Nissan a global partner. Later he was responsible for the club’s structural operations before moving into the rarefied air of football operations, first for City then CFG.
Berrada has been compared to David Gill, United’s chief executive for 10 years until 2013, who worked alongside Sir Alex Ferguson during the club’s most successful decade of six Premier League titles, one Champions League, one FA Cup only, through the League Cup and the Club. The World Cup was claimed. Here, however, Berrada faces another challenge identified by those familiar with both clubs.
At City, the chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, allows the chief executive, Ferran Soriano, the sporting director, Txiki Begiristain, and Pep Guardiola, the chief manager of the generation, to run the club without interference. Berrada is not walking into a best-in-class structure. Instead, the demand is to rebuild United almost from the ground up.
Borson says: “The first thing I would do is listen. For a month, maybe two, three. Go around the organization and listen to everyone. Ignore preconception. Actually keep all the people we talked about out of the way to get my own opinion of what’s going on in the club.
“We all hear about United being a mess. It looks from the outside as if they have problems at every level. He needs to find out what those problems are, because if he can’t identify them, he can’t solve them. I would be talking from the most junior to the most senior [employees].”
Another person who has dealt with City and United for several years believes that Berrada took the job due to a number of factors. There is a huge opportunity to turn United around, the lucrative salary and bonuses on offer, and the ceiling at City, where it could not rise further unless Begiristain and Soriano leave.
Borson agrees. “It’s a no-brainer. [He’s] going to United at the perfect point in perhaps the last 40 years.”
As Berrada has said before: “Challenge yourself – get out of your comfort zone because you will grow personally and professionally.”
United watchers will have to wait and see if Berrada is up to the task of taking on the behemoth of a club that has been on the sidelines since Ferguson’s departure. One major test will be to achieve new agility in the transfer market, where United have operated at a glacial pace of late.
Barcelona’s pursuit of Frenkie de Jong in the summer of 2022 for months and ultimately fruitless is just one example in a long list of bungled moves. Compare this to City and, say, the days needed to land Jérémy Doku from Rennes last August. Part of the problem is how United’s sluggishness means they leak goals.
Borson says: “Anyone who is unhappy or feels wronged will speak up [to the media]. Berrada must find them out. It has to be: ‘Here we are now. This is my fresh start. I’m in charge.” In time we will find out how much power Berrada has.
