Ali Mabkhout’s most memorable moments with the UAE national team have arguably come in the Asian Cup.
Spearhead to the enchanting side that wowed in Australia in 2015, the Al Jazira striker departed the tournament with not only a bronze medal – the UAE’s best performance outside of the Emirates – but with the Golden Boot, too.
Mabkhout struck twice in the Group B opener against Qatar, then within 14 seconds of the next match against Bahrain. An expert finish from Omar Abdulrahman’s exquisite pass, it remains the record for fastest goal in Asian Cup history.
It was Mabkhout, again, who notched early in what became the famous quarter-final win against Japan, the defending champions, when his seventh-minute goal gave the UAE something to rally around. Mahdi Ali’s men protected the lead like their lives depended on it, only to eventually surrender in Sydney as the tie entered its final stages.
Still, in the subsequent shootout, Mabkhout followed Abdulrahman’s impish Panenka penalty by keeping his cool also, and the UAE registered one of the great Asian Cup upsets.
If the semi-final against the hosts proved a step too far – Australia prevailed 2-0 – then Mabkhout ensured his country’s historic finish by netting the winner in the third-placed play-off with Iraq. He concluded the tournament with an unrivalled five goals.
Four years later, at the expanded tournament in the UAE, Mabkhout inflated his own Asian Cup haul. He scored another four times en route to another semi-final appearance, exacting some sort of revenge against Australia by deciding the last-eight encounter in Al Ain.
Latching onto a Milos Degenek mistake, Mabkhout displayed his speed of mind and foot to round Mat Ryan and send the UAE through.
They are traits that have sustained through to this rescheduled Asian Cup, which kicks off in Qatar on Friday. Even at 33, Mabkhout remains the UAE’s go-to guy, the forward building on his contribution in the past two continental competitions by since becoming the all-time leading goalscorer both for country and in the UAE top-flight.
In the same year the 2019 Asian Cup played out, Mabkhout usurped Adnan Al Talyani as the national team’s most prolific marksman, his two goals against Indonesia taking him to 54 in the international game. He has since added another 31.
This season, and having long before raced out alone in domestic football, Mabkhout broke beyond 300 goals for Jazira, his boyhood club.
He has been integral, as well, to Paulo Bento’s promising start as UAE manager. Mabkhout netted twice in November’s opening fixture to 2026 World Cup qualification, against Nepal, then added to that home double with making safe a second successive victory five days later in Bahrain.
He began the qualifier on the bench, a hugely surprising call by Bento, but one that ultimately reaped its reward. Mabkhout, undoubtedly the star name in what is a transitional UAE squad, seemingly accepted the decision with little fuss. He responded just as Bento would have wanted.
Irrespective of the reduced role in Rigga, Mabkhout is expected to again be key to the UAE’s Asian Cup hopes this time around. Fortunately, for the national team, he has a more-than-competent support cast in Doha.
Ali Saleh, while only 23, captains Al Wasl, current leaders of the Adnoc Pro League; club teammates, the naturalised duo of Fabio De Lima and Caio Canedo, carry a sizeable goal threat, too.
In Harib Abdallah and Yahya Al Ghassani, the UAE possess a pair of wingers that can petrify opposition defences – Abdallah, 21, could be a breakout star this month – while Al Wahda midfielder Tahnoon Al Zaabi offers a creative spark from the bench.
Meanwhile, Sultan Adil may be still a teenager, and have a mere six caps to his name, yet he is a mobile and muscular frontman who can lead the line in Mabkhout’s absence. It is something the UAE have not had since Ahmed Khalil succumbed long ago to persistent fitness issues.
Unlike in 2019, the UAE enter their latest Asian Cup campaign – they begin Group C on Sunday against Hong Kong – full of forward promise, even if concerns still linger at the back.
In truth, a third semi-final run feels a step too far for a group still a work in progress under Bento, but this delayed Asian Cup should be used also to provide a platform towards the next World Cup.
Whether Mabkhout’s status within the team maintains through to 2026 is far from guaranteed. But, right now, he is crucial to UAE hopes in Qatar for sure.
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
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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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
