Football’s most celebrated club fixture comes to Las Vegas this weekend, and although it is a pre-season game, all clasicos carry competitive bite.
There’s a fresh aspect to the eternal grudge between Barcelona and Real Madrid, too, dating from their surreal last meeting. Back in March, at the Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid wore all black, had Luka Modric playing at centre-forward, and, most surprisingly, lost to Barca by a thumping 4-0 scoreline.
It made no difference to the destiny of the Liga title, won at canter by a Real Madrid who had at that stage embarked on an extraordinary set of adventures, comeback after comeback, in the knockouts of European Cup, a trophy they collected for the 14th time in the club’s history after beating Liverpool in Paris.
Since then, a calm, ordered close-season has been under way. Madrid failed in their bid to land their No 1 target in the market, Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe, but continue to build their collection of talented French players, with Aurelien Tchouameni their big-money new signing. The 22-year-old is earmarked for a midfield place long into the future, alongside last summer’s French capture, Eduardo Camavinga.
Antonio Rudiger, out of contract at Chelsea, has arrived to reinforce a defence that, in achieving the double last season, missed the departed Sergio Ramos and Rafa Varane, two long-term pillars of the side, less than expected.
Rudiger, though, has been reminded since linking up within his new teammates that goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, his former Chelsea colleague, was the principal and outstanding protector of Madrid at the back in 2021/22.
If Madrid are to recapture their domestic and European prizes in the coming campaign, they will likely need Courtois to maintain his excellence, and Karim Benzema, at the other end of the pitch, to keep similar standards to those he rose to in the last 10 months.
Gallery: Real beat Liverpool in Champions League final
Benzema is the leading candidate to win this year’s Ballon d’Or, on the back of his 44 goals, his leadership, and the hat-tricks in Europe that inspired the come-from-behind triumphs on the road to the winning final against Liverpool.
The concern for Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, ahead of a season where senior players are bound to be affected with fatigue because of the November-December World Cup in Qatar, is that cover for the goalkeeper and especially for his 34-year-old France international centre-forward that looks thin.
Luka Jovic, the Serbian striker who struggled for form following his €60m purchase from Eintracht Frankfurt in 2019, has put an end to his three-year misadventure in Madrid by joining Fiorentina. Gareth Bale is at last off the wage bill, after nine years in which spectacular success with Madrid was followed by a long uncomfortable period on the margins.
Both were, in theory at least, back-ups for Benzema. There are few others. One lesson of that peculiar 4-0 Barcelona win in March was that, in the absence of Benzema, Modric as a ‘false nine’ is not a solution – “it was a mistake,” Ancelotti admitted afterwards.
The best alternative available is probably Vinicius Junior applying his improvements as a finisher to a more central position that his usual role attacking, at pace, from the left wing.
Top La Liga goalscorers 2021/22
Vinicius scored the only goal of the Champions League final, capping a brilliant nine months for the 22-year-old Brazilian and offering one of several lines of encouragement for madridistas concerned about the club’s dependence on their so-called ‘old guard’.
Modric, still full of energy, will turn 37 in September. His long-time allies in midfield, Tony Kroos and Casemiro, are 32 and 30. They each now know they have hungry, ambitious understudies.
The precocious Camavinga, who turns 20 in November, impressed coming off the bench in the Champions League, where Federico Valverde, 23, was in the starting XI for the final and the preceding five games of the see-saw knockout phase. And Madrid did not commit to Monaco €80 million – with possible add-ons of €20m – for Tchouameni, 22, without envisaging for him a long-term, commanding role in their midfield.
So far in this summer window, no transfer has fetched a higher fee than Tchouameni’s, but Madrid would acknowledge moves elsewhere have drawn more headlines.
For instance: Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona, who have been busy in their trading. Or even the transfer from Leeds United to Barca of Raphinha, who took it on himself to declare, ahead of the Las Vegas clasico, “for me, we’re better than Real Madrid.”
A 13-point gap between the rivals in last season’s Liga table, not to mention Barcelona’s failure to get out of the group in the last Champions League, says otherwise. But Madrid will still remember that 4-0 shock from the spring, and note that, in Lewandowski, Barcelona have armed themselves for the season ahead with a centre-forward of Benzema’s calibre.
Gallery: Real's La Liga title celebrations
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What vitamins do we know are beneficial for living in the UAE
Vitamin D: Highly relevant in the UAE due to limited sun exposure; supports bone health, immunity and mood.
Vitamin B12: Important for nerve health and energy production, especially for vegetarians, vegans and individuals with absorption issues.
Iron: Useful only when deficiency or anaemia is confirmed; helps reduce fatigue and support immunity.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA): Supports heart health and reduces inflammation, especially for those who consume little fish.
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.”
FIRST TEST SCORES
England 458
South Africa 361 & 119 (36.4 overs)
England won by 211 runs and lead series 1-0
Player of the match: Moeen Ali (England)
Company%20profile
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
MATCH INFO
Everton 2 Southampton 1
Everton: Walcott (15'), Richarlison (31' )
Southampton: Ings (54')
Man of the match: Theo Walcott (Everton)
FIXTURES
Monday, January 28
Iran v Japan, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Tuesday, January 29
UAEv Qatar, Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Friday, February 1
Final, Zayed Sports City Stadium (6pm)
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BIG SPENDERS
Premier League clubs spent £230 million (Dh1.15 billion) on January transfers, the second-highest total for the mid-season window, the Sports Business Group at Deloitte said in a report.
