How Omar Berrada Went From College Dropout to CEO of Manchester United

A while ago, I had the immense pleasure to interview Omar Berrada, then COO at City Football Group and Manchester City Football Club. He has since been named CEO of Manchester United . As member of the management team of both City, and previously, FC Barcelona, Berrada went from success to success in the international football world, meeting all the greats of the sports along the way (Lionel Messi, Vincent Kompany, Kevin De Bruyne, and Pep Guardiola, to name just a few).

But what I found particularly interesting, in his story, is that it wasn't written in the stars he'd reach this success. Luck, following his gut feeling, taking risks, and meeting the right people, and following in their footsteps played a crucial role in the life career of Omar, who was born in Paris to Moroccon parents.

Have a look at the full interview I did with Omar Berrada here on YouTube.

At an early age, Omar first went through the American school system, and then studied at EU Business School after dropping out of a Massachusetts engineering college ("it wasn't for me"), primarily to gain international experience in Europe. And what started 18 months later as a move of the heart - moving to Barcelona, to be close to his favorite football club - turned into a lifelong adventure.

Omar met his wife in the capital of Catalonia, started his career at the port city at car manufacturer Honda and then joined internet provider Tiscali in the early days of the first internet revolution, and eventually followed into the footsteps of his boss at Tiscali, who moved to FC Barcelona after having led Tiscali through the choppy waves that followed the first dotcom crash.

From there, and step by step, Berrada built a track record of success in sales, marketing and commercializing the club further, making it the top in Europe on this front too. Why would he ever leave? Well, when a headhunter came to find him to join Manchester City for a similar role there, he nevertheless jumped ship from the sunny and successful Barcelona region, to the dreary Manchester and its challenger club, City.

He did that, he told me, because he never shied away from a challenge in his life. Sure, Barcelona was his favorite club, and his family life was there. But Manchester promised him something else: to be one of the "founders" of the success of a new contender to the international football crown. He'd start almost from scratch, but would get a chance to prove that he could help build the operations and marketing for club based on his talent and work, rather than to rest on the laurels of an already magical club such as FCB.

This time, it was Berrada who was the trailblazer: the current CEO of Manchester City, Ferran Soriano, made a similar move from FC Barcelona to City shortly after Berrada, and of course, Pep Guardiola, who won Champions Leagues with Barcelona both as a player and a coach, later joined City as well, as head coach.

Since his arrival, Berrada worked his way up at the club, helping it improve on all initiatives he was involved with, from expanding to new markets abroad, to creating an equally successful women's as men's elite team. And, as the club grew, so did Berrada. Having initally joined as Head of International Business Development, he eventually became COO of the entire City Football Group, spanning various continents and dozens of organizations. (Two years after we spoke, he got the ultimate promotion, and became CEO of Manchester United, perhaps the most iconic football club in the world.)

Berrada shared all these insights, and much more, with the students and alumni of EU Business School, his own alma mater, in a conversation I had with him in the series "Learning from Leaders". It's an initiative we set up following the success of "Before I Was CEO", where I interviewed successful executives, about their life and career before they made it to the top. To reads more about the series, and the interview with Omar, have a look here.