In the years Zinedine Zidane was turning his mind to a career as a manager, he occasionally used to sidle gently into the back rows of a press conference at the Bernabeu stadium to see how a master manager worked a room.
He took notes on Jose Mourinho’s studied utterances, and he got to see how visiting tacticians handled themselves around European games in the Spanish capital.
Zidane was observing at Real Madrid during the 18-month period when Borussia Dortmund came to town with unusual frequency. There were six Dortmund-Madrid meetings between October 2012 and April 2014. It was the time of the engaging Jurgen Klopp’s rise from being a big noise in the Bundesliga to an international star.
______________
Read more:
Richard Jolly: Emery's intensity could be the alternative to Wenger that Arsenal need
Jurgen Klopp: What Liverpool lack in experience they will make up for in desire
[ Dejan Lovren: Mohamed Salah belongs in same company as Messi and Ronaldo ]
______________
Klopp came across as buoyant, and brilliant. His Dortmund met Mourinho’s Madrid four times in one season and put eight goals past them. Zidane watched the galvanising, talkative Klopp transmitting his contagious energy to a dynamic team. The first leg of the semi-final in the Uefa Champions League that year was, perhaps until last month, Klopp’s finest 90 minutes in management: Dortmund 4 Madrid 1.
Dortmund that night were a marvel. Robert Lewandowski scored all four goals. Afterwards Klopp made one of those self-deprecating jokes that are part of his charm. “You know I scored four goals in a game once,” grinned Klopp, “against Erfurt!” So he did, as a powerful if unsophisticated striker playing for Mainz in the second tier of German football in the early 1990s.
Klopp the player was no Lewandowski, although he was appreciated, had a long professional career and resourcefully stretched it over different spells as a centre-forward and as a defender.
This week, he was entertaining reporters again with shoulder-shrugging about his own limitations as a young sportsman, pointing out how different is his background in football to that of Zidane, his managerial opponent in Saturday’s Champions League final between his Liverpool and the Madrid Zidane has coached so successfully for the past two and half years.
“I am glad we’re not playing against each other, me marking him or whatever,” said Klopp, who ended his playing career of almost 300 second-division games in the year, 2001, that Zidane, moving from Juventus to Madrid, became the most expensive player in football history. “I admired him as a player,” added Klopp of Zidane, “as one of the top 10, or top five, of all-time.”
As managers, they are also cut from distinct cloth. Klopp is effervescent, a motormouth to the Zidane who sometimes mumbles through his public appearances. The phrase "Heavy Metal Football" has become a slogan for the Klopp style, the aggressive pressing, the intense roar through specific phases of games.
Zidane, promoted in early 2016 to take charge of the Madrid first-team having managed only in the club’s feeder system, brings a lighter touch to his work. Don’t be deceived. He is in control, and the shaper of outcomes, with a knack for making the right, decisive substitution in tight contests.
Klopp has been managing teams in European competitions for 13 years. He has reached two finals, both lost. Zidane has been managing Madrid in Europe for a far shorter time, and reached two finals. He won both. And, as he prepares for the blitzing counter-attacks of Klopp’s Liverpool, he may reflect in some detail on the way his blessed career as a Champions League coach began, with a last-16 tie against Roma.
It ended 4-0 on aggregate to Madrid, but the scoreline masks many moments that were problematic for the novice on the touchline. Had Mohamed Salah, then of Roma, converted the several goalscoring chances he engineered for himself, Zidane’s impeccable run in the Champions League – three attempts, three finals – might have been still-born.
Combatting Salah is his focus again, as Zidane plots a third successive title in the most prestigious of all club competitions. The Egyptian’s finishing has been stunningly sharpened in the red of Klopp’s Liverpool, and he is the same cheetah across the grass he was for Roma, when he exploited space behind Madrid’s Marcelo again and again on the night of Zidane’s debut in a Champions League technical area.
Then, the freshman coach did not panic, and try to curb his attacking left-back’s runs. He knew Marcelo could hurt Roma as an attacker, even if he risked granting Salah space. Zidane quietly, and calmly, trusted in his player’s strengths. It is his way. He will not be deafened by Klopp’s heavy metal.
Forced Deportations
While the Lebanese government has deported a number of refugees back to Syria since 2011, the latest round is the first en-mass campaign of its kind, say the Access Center for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization which monitors the conditions of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
“In the past, the Lebanese General Security was responsible for the forced deportation operations of refugees, after forcing them to sign papers stating that they wished to return to Syria of their own free will. Now, the Lebanese army, specifically military intelligence, is responsible for the security operation,” said Mohammad Hasan, head of ACHR.
In just the first four months of 2023 the number of forced deportations is nearly double that of the entirety of 2022.
Since the beginning of 2023, ACHR has reported 407 forced deportations – 200 of which occurred in April alone.
In comparison, just 154 people were forcfully deported in 2022.
Violence
Instances of violence against Syrian refugees are not uncommon.
Just last month, security camera footage of men violently attacking and stabbing an employee at a mini-market went viral. The store’s employees had engaged in a verbal altercation with the men who had come to enforce an order to shutter shops, following the announcement of a municipal curfew for Syrian refugees.
“They thought they were Syrian,” said the mayor of the Nahr el Bared municipality, Charbel Bou Raad, of the attackers.
It later emerged the beaten employees were Lebanese. But the video was an exemplary instance of violence at a time when anti-Syrian rhetoric is particularly heated as Lebanese politicians call for the return of Syrian refugees to Syria.
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Blah
Started: 2018
Founder: Aliyah Al Abbar and Hend Al Marri
Based: Dubai
Industry: Technology and talent management
Initial investment: Dh20,000
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 40
Company Profile
Company name: EduPloyment
Date started: March 2020
Co-Founders: Mazen Omair and Rana Batterjee
Base: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Recruitment
Size: 30 employees
Investment stage: Pre-Seed
Investors: Angel investors (investment amount undisclosed)
Company profile
Company name: Letswork
Started: 2018
Based: Dubai
Founders: Omar Almheiri, Hamza Khan
Sector: co-working spaces
Investment stage: $2.1 million in a seed round with investors including 500 Global, The Space, DTEC Ventures and other angel investors
Number of employees: about 20
BACK TO ALEXANDRIA
Director: Tamer Ruggli
Starring: Nadine Labaki, Fanny Ardant
Rating: 3.5/5
Other key dates
-
Finals draw: December 2
-
Finals (including semi-finals and third-placed game): June 5–9, 2019
-
Euro 2020 play-off draw: November 22, 2019
-
Euro 2020 play-offs: March 26–31, 2020
The Iron Claw
Director: Sean Durkin
Starring: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Holt McCallany, Lily James
Rating: 4/5
1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List
James Mustich, Workman
Ways to control drones
Countries have been coming up with ways to restrict and monitor the use of non-commercial drones to keep them from trespassing on controlled areas such as airports.
"Drones vary in size and some can be as big as a small city car - so imagine the impact of one hitting an airplane. It's a huge risk, especially when commercial airliners are not designed to make or take sudden evasive manoeuvres like drones can" says Saj Ahmed, chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research.
New measures have now been taken to monitor drone activity, Geo-fencing technology is one.
It's a method designed to prevent drones from drifting into banned areas. The technology uses GPS location signals to stop its machines flying close to airports and other restricted zones.
The European commission has recently announced a blueprint to make drone use in low-level airspace safe, secure and environmentally friendly. This process is called “U-Space” – it covers altitudes of up to 150 metres. It is also noteworthy that that UK Civil Aviation Authority recommends drones to be flown at no higher than 400ft. “U-Space” technology will be governed by a system similar to air traffic control management, which will be automated using tools like geo-fencing.
The UAE has drawn serious measures to ensure users register their devices under strict new laws. Authorities have urged that users must obtain approval in advance before flying the drones, non registered drone use in Dubai will result in a fine of up to twenty thousand dirhams under a new resolution approved by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai.
Mr Ahmad suggest that "Hefty fines running into hundreds of thousands of dollars need to compensate for the cost of airport disruption and flight diversions to lengthy jail spells, confiscation of travel rights and use of drones for a lengthy period" must be enforced in order to reduce airport intrusion.
Kandahar
Director: Ric Roman Waugh
Stars: Gerard Butler, Navid Negahban, Ali Fazal
Rating: 2.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Haltia.ai
Started: 2023
Co-founders: Arto Bendiken and Talal Thabet
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: AI
Number of employees: 41
Funding: About $1.7 million
Investors: Self, family and friends
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed