Younus Mahmood, centre, in action during the Asian Cup Qualifier match between Iraq and China at Sharjah football stadium in Sharjah. Iraq won the match by 3 - 1. Pawan Singh / The National
Younus Mahmood, centre, in action during the Asian Cup Qualifier match between Iraq and China at Sharjah football stadium in Sharjah. Iraq won the match by 3 - 1. Pawan Singh / The National

Ahmed Radhi, Younus Mahmoud and the five best Iraqi footballers of all time



As part of the segment of The National's Football in Times of Crisis series focusing on Iraq, Ahmed Rizvi picks the five best players ever to emerge from the country.

Younus Mahmoud

Iraq’s most capped player with 139 appearances, Mahmoud is a live wire who leaves it all on the pitch. Captain of the team when Iraq won the 2007 Asian Cup, Mahmoud, who has the map of Iraq tattooed on his arms, scored the winning goal in the final of that tournament against Saudi Arabia. The 32-year-old striker is second on Iraq’s list of all-time goalscorers with 53, eight shy of Hussein Saeed’s tally.

Emmanuel Baba Dawud

Better known as “Ammo” Baba, the late Dawud is a legend of Iraqi football. An ethnic Assyrian Christian, he was a member of Iraq’s first international team and made 17 appearances from 1957-66, scoring 11 times. A prolific goalscorer at club level, he also coached the national team and was one of the few men who openly confronted Uday Hussein, the notorious president of the Iraq Football ­Association.

FEATURE: Football in times of crisis: Iraq's love of the game refuses to waiver in face of violence

Ahmed Radhi

Widely regarded as Iraq’s best player of all-time, Radhi had a phenomenal goalscoring record at international level, netting 42 times in 73 appearances between 1982-1997. He also scored Iraq’s only goal at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, in the 2-1 defeat to Belgium. After the World Cup, Uruguayan side Nacional made a US$1 million (Dh3.6m at today’s rate) offer to Radhi’s club Al Rasheed for his services, but it was rejected. In 1988, he was voted Asian Footballer of the Year.

Hussein Saeed

A member of Iraq’s “golden generation” of the 1980s, Saeed heads the list of the country’s all-time scorers with 61 goals from 126 matches. The tally puts him at No 14 on the list of the top goalscorers in international football. Saeed spent his entire club career with one team, playing 14 years with Al Talaba.

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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.”

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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo 

 Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua

 Based: Dubai, UAE

 Number of employees: 28

 Sector: Financial services

 Investment: $9.5m

 Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. 

 
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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If you go

The flights

There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.

The trip

Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.

The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.

 

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4