When Silvio Berlusconi, the president of AC Milan and prime minister of Italy, addressed the players of his squad last Tuesday in Rome, he paid special attention to the newcomer, Antonio Cassano.
"You," he told Cassano, "are the Italian footballer with the greatest natural talent of all."
None of Cassano's compatriots in the Milan ranks took great offence at that. Cassano's exceptional gifts have never been in dispute; the doubts about the 28-year-old striker have always surrounded his application of that talent.
As the rossoneri, Serie A's league leaders, lined up to hear Berlusconi play the motivator and statesman - "a strong Milan is good for Italy," he proclaimed - Cassano still looked like an outsider.
Most of the players stood upright, like soldiers being inspected by a general, or at least like schoolboys listening to their headmaster. Cassano's pose was significantly different. He leaned gently against a pillar, just a bit less ceremonial than the others. It was easy to spot the potential class rebel.
It had been rebellion that led Cassano to Milan, whom he formally joined at the opening of this month's transfer window. He fell out with the Sampdoria president, Riccardo Garrone, last October and from then on a departure from that club - the third, after Bari and Roma, of his Serie A career - became inevitable.
Samp had in turn recruited Cassano in 2007 when Real Madrid no longer wanted a player who had clashed there with the coach Fabio Capello. Famously, Cassano was caught on camera doing a mischievous impersonation of Capello to amuse his teammates.
A word has been coined for these acts of indiscipline that have punctuated his career. They are called "cassanate", a kind of tomfoolery named after Cassano.
It is no exaggeration to say that Italian football is in suspense about whether the Cassano era at Milan will be characterised by cassanate or by the late flowering of an individual around whom the national team has once again pinned heavy hopes.
Cassano's competitive debut for his new club, on Thursday away at Cagliari, put the player at centre stage, even when he was on the substitutes' bench at the start.
Television viewers were repeatedly dragged from events on the field to see what Cassano might be doing. The answer? Smiling from time to time; looking concerned as a Milan deprived of Zlatan Ibrahimovic through suspension, and a number of senior players through injury, struggled to impose themselves.
Cassano was given his chance to make a difference 16 minutes from time, stripping off his tracksuit to reveal his No 99 jersey. Eleven minutes later, he had set up the game's only goal.
Receiving the ball from Robinho, an old comrade from Real Madrid, he then found Rodney Strasser, another replacement, and the young Sierra Leone striker, in a position that looked offside, scored his first senior goal for Milan.
Milan's coach, Massimiliano Allegri, praised Cassano's contribution, but stressed that he will be easing, not rushing, the player into his plans.
"This Milan is about everybody, not just Ibrahimovic, not just Cassano. He's not yet in perfect shape because he has been a long time without first-team football, and we have a heavy schedule of fixtures ahead, with Champions League coming up," Allegri said.
The win confirmed Milan as winter champions.
Even if they lose at San Siro tomorrow against Udinese they will lead Serie A at the halfway stage of the season, given they hold a five-point advantage over second-placed Lazio.
Ibrahimovic, the top scorer, should return against Udinese; Alexandre Pato did come back, against Cagliari, from a long lay-off; and Robinho showed on Thursday that his unfortunate injury during last week's friendly in Dubai (he collided with a television camera) is less grave than initially feared. Thus, Cassano may again have to be content with a place on the bench. Allegri will hope that does not bore him. It is when Cassano seeks distractions that the cassanate occur.
[ sports@thenational.ae ]
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Way It Was: My Life with Frank Sinatra by Eliot Weisman and Jennifer Valoppi
Hachette Books
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
Company Profile
Name: HyveGeo
Started: 2023
Founders: Abdulaziz bin Redha, Dr Samsurin Welch, Eva Morales and Dr Harjit Singh
Based: Cambridge and Dubai
Number of employees: 8
Industry: Sustainability & Environment
Funding: $200,000 plus undisclosed grant
Investors: Venture capital and government
SPECS
Engine: 2-litre direct injection turbo
Transmission: 7-speed automatic
Power: 261hp
Torque: 400Nm
Price: From Dh134,999
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Klipit
Started: 2022
Founders: Venkat Reddy, Mohammed Al Bulooki, Bilal Merchant, Asif Ahmed, Ovais Merchant
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Digital receipts, finance, blockchain
Funding: $4 million
Investors: Privately/self-funded
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qureos
Based: UAE
Launch year: 2021
Number of employees: 33
Sector: Software and technology
Funding: $3 million
Intercontinental Cup
Namibia v UAE Saturday Sep 16-Tuesday Sep 19
Table 1 Ireland, 89 points; 2 Afghanistan, 81; 3 Netherlands, 52; 4 Papua New Guinea, 40; 5 Hong Kong, 39; 6 Scotland, 37; 7 UAE, 27; 8 Namibia, 27
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 190hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,500-4,000rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 10.9L/100km
Price: From Dh119,900
On sale: Now
