After slotting the penalty which broke the deadlock and sparked the game into life, he might have been forgiven for acting like he had just found the last Coca-Cola in the desert.
It was all about him. When is it ever not? And yet, after achieving something unique, making history, and apparently paving the way to victory against a stubborn opposition, he was one of the boys again.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s 65th minute strike set Portugal on the way to a 3-2 win over Ghana at the World Cup in Doha. He had won the spot-kick himself, after he was felled – if slightly tamely - by Mohammed Salisu.
His celebration did bear most of the trademarks. He ran to the corner, leapt high in the air, and was ready to unleash his arms at his side.
And yet there was no “siuu”. Not from him, at least, even if the majority of the crowd in the Stadium 974 bellowed exactly that. Instead, he cracked a smile, and looked straight for his mates.
They were already there surrounding him, the substitutes massed by the corner flag, ready to mob the first man to score in five World Cups.
Still, there was a job to do. Initially, they made heavy weather of it, passing up an equaliser five minutes later to Andre Ayew, Ronaldo’s opposite number as Ghana captain.
For all their endeavour, though, Ghana are the lowest ranked side in the tournament for a reason, and the Portuguese just about managed to bring their class to bear.
First, Joao Felix reasserted their advantage with a clever lifted finish. Then Rafael Leao gave them a two-goal buffer two minutes later.
Ghana refused to bow, and Osman Bukari set Portuguese nerves racing when he dragged a goal back with a minute remaining in normal time.
Ronaldo, who had just had his own personal curtain call after being substituted, was livid that the door had been left ajar for the Ghanaians. By the end, though, he could be satisfied with a job just about well done.
Even if he was not on the field when victory was finally sealed, it had been Ronaldo’s occasion.
The crowd were gripped by anticipation whenever he went near the ball. The first time he did, 90 seconds in, it was greeted by a cacophonous roar. Not that it was anything to celebrate: he miss-controlled, then made a foul.
In the 10th minute, he was lax again. He found space in the heart of the Ghana defence, but his first touch got away from him and permitted goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi to stub out the threat.
Shortly after, he erred for a third time. Admittedly, few other players in the game would have been able to soar in the fashion he did at the far post to meet a high cross. Once there, though, he failed to get any significant purchase on the header, and the ball drifted harmlessly wide.
Just after the half-hour mark, he did have the ball in Ati-Zigi’s goal, but it had already been ruled out as he was adjudged to have fouled Alexander Djiku, the Ghana defender.
The sense that nothing was going quite right for the fixture’s dominant figure was summed up just before half-time when he got in the way of his teammate Raphael Guerreiro’s volleyed shot from the left. The ball became tangled in Ronaldo’s legs, and his effort to move in on was uncharacteristically ungainly.
With his first chance after the break, he was easily marshalled again by Ghana’s defence. As they broke away, the African side enjoyed their brightest moment of the game till that point, as Mohammed Kudus flashed a shot from distance just wide.
The game was getting increasingly feisty. Alidu Seidu was lucky to escape a red card after going head to head with Felix.
All that occurred before goal had even been scored. Then Ronaldo addressed that issue by opening the floodgates. Within 25 minutes at the end of the game, five flew in.
What mattered to Ronaldo and Portugal in the final count up, though, was that the three points were theirs.
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
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
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.”
UAE%20v%20West%20Indies
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Countries recognising Palestine
France, UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra
