Lifestyle choices have never been more important for a footballer. As competition has increased, so the margins for error have decreased.
When I started out, players could get away with not eating well. Even when I joined Manchester United in 1995, I didn't really take care of what I ate.
If I fancied some chips or pizza in the club canteen then I'd take it. The club employed a nutritionist who was popular but not always taken seriously. Anything he gave us was ridiculed as a magic potion.
Who you spend your social time with matters too. Most footballers grow up in working class backgrounds. I was raised in one of the poorest parts of Nottingham, not that it seemed so at the time.
Some of my best friends were wrong 'uns and still are. They have been in and out of prison. They are also still some of my best friends, but I don't get wrapped up in their world and they don't encourage me.
Some have seen the light and turned to jobs like social work to put something back into the community.
They protected me when I was younger. When they knew trouble was brewing, they'd send me home. I was only 15 or so, but they knew I had potential to be a footballer and didn't want me to waste it by getting in trouble with the police. I didn't want to be sent home by my mates, but I later realised that they were watching out for me.
Many footballers come from a similar background to me. Many have more talent than I had and still fail because they get involved with the wrong people or make the wrong choices themselves. There are plenty of failed footballers with tales to tell.
Maybe their mates didn't look out for them like mine did, because if you are going to be a top footballer then you can't be staying out all night. You have to make lots of sacrifices and even then it's tough.
I've seen many players make those sacrifices and then get to 21 or 22 having made it. They're sitting on a four-year contract and they look around and think: "I've got a lot of money, I'm a professional footballer, I've achieved my dream and I'm loving life."
It's natural that they want to let their hair down and enjoy themselves, natural that they want to meet girls. I'd be more worried if they didn't, but you need to make sensible decisions all the time, from how you spend the money to the company you keep.
You should never shun the mates with whom you have grown up and like you for yourself, in favour of hangers on who just want to be around a celebrity, but you must also realise that your life is different from theirs.
It's not easy when you move to a new city and everyone wants to be your best pal. You want to be friendly with people, but you don't know their motives. You need good people to advise you, not just a decent manager, but people your own age - maybe teammates who know the city well. They've probably had a similar upbringing to you.
I didn't go on a plane until football took me on one. I didn't take a foreign holiday with my partner until I was 22. We went to Florida and I was asked for my credit card at the hotel reception. I didn't own one and never had, nor had any of the people I grew up with. I had a bundle of notes, but they wanted a credit card. My agent had booked and paid for the holiday on his card.
Talent is only one part of being a footballer. You have to be mentally strong enough to take flak from all comers, from the media to your own fans.
You have to accept that people will read lies about you and there's little you can do about it. That you are being judged all the time, with snap verdicts aplenty.
Sign an autograph for a kid and him and his dad will think you are a legend for life. Don't sign it, even for a good reason, and you are an arrogant so and so.
You can live by those rules and understand that people are passionate and reactionary. You understand that fans are fickle and that they'll cheer you when you are scoring and boo you when you don't.
The only person you cannot kid is yourself. So you have to be true to yourself and make the right decisions.
Fabio Capello warned Andy Carroll, the Liverpool striker, this week over his lifestyle. "I think if he wants to be a good player, a good sportsman, he needs to drink less," Capello said of the striker, who has been in trouble with the police on several occasions.
Sometimes the hardest advice to take is the best: whether Carroll will listen to Capello remains to be seen.
Sometimes the best advice is the hardest to take, especially when it is dished out in public.
Andrew Cole's column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.
sports@thenational.ae
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Match info:
Burnley 0
Manchester United 2
Lukaku (22', 44')
Red card: Marcus Rashford (Man United)
Man of the match: Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United)
Super Bowl LIII schedule
What Super Bowl LIII
Who is playing New England Patriots v Los Angeles Rams
Where Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, United States
When Sunday (start time is 3.30am on Monday UAE time)
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Results
6.30pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes Group Three US$200,000 (Turf) 2,000m; Winner: Ghaiyyath, William Buick (jockey), Charlie Appleby (trainer).
7.05pm: Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Cliffs Of Capri, Tadhg O’Shea, Jamie Osborne.
7.40pm: UAE Oaks Group Three $250,000 (Dirt) 1,900m; Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.15pm: Zabeel Mile Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Zakouski, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby.
8.50pm: Meydan Sprint Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,000m; Winner: Waady, Jim Crowley, Doug Watson.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
