For the uninitiated, Javier Hernández Balcázar is a Mexican professional footballer who plays forward for the German club Bayern Leverkusen and the Mexican National Team, but is commonly known by his nickname: Chicharito (or Mexican Spanish: Little Pea).
2. The FC Challenge will feature German clubs
Bayer 04 Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg and
Clube de Regatas do Flamengo and Clube Atlético
Mineiro from Brazil playing in a Davis Cup-modeled
competition with Clubs representing Countries,
each vying for points to secure the tournament
title for their home nation
4. The “Werkself” (works team) concept
demonstrates that the global enterprise
Bayer AG fully supports Bayer 04 Fußball
GmbHwith it's expertise and international
reputation to be one of the most professional
and established Bundesliga clubs
5. The concept of turning young and talented
players into a successful team has put the
club on a very promising path with various
popular figures and outstanding characters -
be that players or management members -
round off the impact of Bayer 04 Leverkusen
6. As the league’s Werkself, Bayer 04 possesses
one of the most unusual club traditions
with notable sporting achievements and
is continuing along this route in the spirit
of ultimate professionalism, innovation
and sporting passion
8. Javier Hernández Balcázar is a Mexican
professional footballer who plays
forward for the German club Bayern
Leverkusen and the Mexican National
Team, but is commonly known by his
nickname: Chicharito (aka: Little Pea)
9. Chicharito was named MVP of the
2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup and
is the second highest-goal scorer in
Mexico National Team history
An ambassador for UNICEF and featured on
the cover of massively popular FIFA 14 game
10. The presence of the ‘Little Pea’ has
unleashed a storm of adulation at the
Florida Cup
Fellow Mexicans from near-and-far are
flocking to Bayer 04's training ground
every day to catch a glimpse of their idol
11. When Bayer 04 visited Florida for the first time
in 2014, without Chicharito, they sold next to
nothingin the way of merchandise
In 2015, replica shirt sales rocketed to the
5,000-mark and thousands turned up just to
watch the team train
12. It’s hardly surprising...
According to the 2015 U.S. Census,
almost a quarter (almost five million) of the
state’s residents are Hispanic or Latino,
many of whom have soccer down as
their number one sport
14. With 7.2 million followers on Twitter
and another 3.5 million on
Instagram, Chicharito is well aware
of what he means to a lot of people
and rarely disappoints
15. Over the course of the year, over
one-and-a-half-million new fans
made their way onto one of Bayer
04’s social media platforms making
them the third-fastest growing
football club in Europe
16. On Instagram alone, Bayer 04
saw growth of 390% whilst
Twitter grew by 188% and
Facebook by 81%
17. During last year’s winter break, Bayer 04
became the first soccer club to broadcast via
Facebook Live, reaching 1.2 million fans who
tuned in for matches against Sante Fe and
Sport Club Internacional and generated over
1.6 million impressions on social media
18. Leverkusen's North American TV ratings,
shirt sales and social traffic have all
experienced massive increases over the
past 13 months including eight of the top
ten most-watched matches on Fox Sports
19. FOX will air the match between Werder Bremen
and Bayer Leverkusen live on over-the-air network
television on Saturday, October 15
Executives are expecting the highest ratings ever
for a Bundesliga match on the network