NEW YORK, USA // Rudolf Vidal was named Managing Director of FC Bayern Munich, heading up US operations since March 2014. In his role, Mr. Vidal is in charge of advancing the FC Bayern brand in North America by supporting existing partnerships that extend into the US market, developing new business opportunities and engaging the millions of FC Bayern fans living in the United States.

Since opening FC Bayern’s US office, Rudolf has forged partnerships with some of the biggest media companies in America, including Univision, Yahoo Sports, Goal.com, and MSN; one of the largest soccer clubs in the US, GPS; an elite ivy league academic institution, Columbia University; Germany’s cultural organization in the States, the Goethe Institut – all allowing the club to engage tens-of-millions of American soccer fans.  Rudolf has also managed the men’s team US tour and women’s team training camp in the US.  Additionally, Rudolf has lead the launch of all of Bayern’s digital properties, including a dedicated website, online store, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles, which have greatly contributed to the overall growth of the club’s social following by over 1 million over the last year.

Prior to joining FC Bayern, Mr. Vidal served as Vice President of Business Development and Monetization for Deutsche Telekom AG. While there, he helped stabilize and extend the digital business with significant sales growth and integration of all sports initiatives across the organization.

Previously, Mr. Vidal managed sports marketing initiatives for PUMA for five years, where he oversaw the company’s 2006 World Cup campaign, the largest and most successful World Cup for PUMA in terms of brand awareness and revenue growth.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Vidal practiced economic law and founded a consulting firm providing services to sports-specific clients. Mr. Vidal has a law degree from Germany’s prestigious Ludwig Maximilian University. He also played soccer as a professional goalkeeper in the first and second division of the Bundesliga.