A strange sensation has been coming over Erling Braut Haaland in his Norway jersey. Count up the minutes, but seek, in vain, the goals.
Haaland has been on the pitch for 145 minutes in the current World Cup qualifying session. In his previous game for his country he played the full 90. But he has now gone without an international goal for well over four hours of action.
For most strikers, this would not become an eye-catching figure. When it attaches to a young player who has been shattering records for prolific form across high-class club competitions, it raises attention.
This is Haaland the unstoppable, who has 21 goals from 21 games this season, a prolific rate he has now maintained for well over a season now, since he signed, as a teenager, a four-and-a-half year contract with Borussia Dortmund in December 2019.
This is the same Haaland who will in eight days’ time confront Manchester City in the Champions League with even more daunting European form. He has scored in every match he has played in the competition this season, and twice in each of his last four, propelling Dortmund to the quarter-finals with two braces of goals in the last-16 victory over Sevilla.
The contrast with his most recent Norway showings is stark. Gibraltar and Northern Ireland have lately found ways to stop him that Bayern Munich, Sevilla and most club defences could not.
Hence the criticism from within Norway that trails Haaland, still only 20, for Tuesday’s meeting with Montenegro, when a Norwegian team peppered with up-and-coming talent attempt to realign their World Cup 2022 qualifying campaign after the weekend’s setback, a 3-0 defeat to Turkey, pacesetters in a group that also includes the Netherlands.
“He’s not playing with the self-confidence we know him for,” observed the pundit and former striker Bernt Hulsker, on Norwegian television, while John Arne Riise, the former Liverpool and Roma full-back and the country’s most capped player, detected an out-of-character passiveness about Haaland during the loss to Turkey. “We hear him being praised for being so emotional when things don’t go right at Dortmund, but we’re not seeing any of that,” said Riise.
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That Dortmund passion was much in evidence just before the international break, when, against Cologne, Haaland contributed another two goals, and, as he had against Bayern two weeks earlier, Dortmund still dropped points.
He left the field at a quick, angry march at the final whistle. Dortmund’s league position is alarming. They are outside the top four that would bring Champions League football for next season, four points shy of Eintracht Frankfurt, who Dortmund host on Saturday.
All of which points to an imminent crossroads for the brilliant prodigy. He is coveted by various superclubs in Spain and England, some of whom, such as Manchester City or Manchester United, can raise the type of transfer fee – well over €100 million ($118m) – that Dortmund would set for Haaland were he to push hard to leave this summer, a year ahead of what had been the outline plan to suit the club and player’s development ladder.
But that plan assumed Champions League football with Dortmund, and Haaland, the fastest player ever to reach 20 goals in the competition, will not sit happily by for a season deprived of playing in club football's most prestigious event – especially after a summer when he will be missing out on the major international showpiece, the European Championships.
Haaland, surrounded by experienced advisors, knows that summer international tournaments stimulate or heighten transfer interest, especially in attacking players.
The Euros will feature a few who might feel this a year to listen to offers, the likes of England’s Harry Kane, facing another year without Champions League football with Tottenham Hotspur, or Kylian Mbappe, who has one full season left on his Paris Saint-Germain deal.
But Norway’s exceptional centre-forward will not be on show, his country having fallen short of reaching the Euros at the play-off stage. There is impatience to end the long Norwegian wait for involvement in a major tournament.
Norway have not been at a World Cup since 1998, or a Euros since 2000, an era when Haaland’s father Alfie, was still wearing the national jersey.
Haaland junior should have enough creative talent around him with the current Norway to make more of his power, his speed, his uncanny scent of goal.
His new captain is Martin Odegaard, the 22-year-old thriving at Arsenal on loan from Real Madrid, and very much an ally through his four-hour goal drought. “We need to play better football,” said Odegaard, “and to be setting up more chances for Erling.”
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal
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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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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
