Some of the best players in football have played in the Mediterranean International Cup.
Lionel Messi, Marcelo, Cesc Fabregas, Neymar, Juan Mata, Lucas Leiva, Jordi Alba, Daley Blind, Oscar, Rafael, Anderson, Coutinho and Gerard Pique are just some of the top footballers who have played in the Easter tournament.
Players who are now in Spain, such as Sergio Busquets, Giovani dos Santos, Sergi Roberto and Marc Bartra — who scored for Barcelona on Wednesday — proliferate.
The future stars are often watched by current or former heroes. Former players Guti, Fran and Jamie Carragher were in attendance last week.
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Guti works at his old club Real Madrid, former Deportivo La Coruna player Fran is an agent specialising in emerging players and Liverpool legend Carragher, now a successful TV analyst in Britain, watched his son.
Past visitors include Ronaldinho, Pep Guardiola.
Pedro, Carles Puyol, Felipe Scolari, Andres Iniesta, Ronaldo and Dani Alves. Barca stars feature heavily, given the location just 100 kilometres north of the Catalan capital.
In 2005, the player of the tournament was Manchester United’s Febian Brandy.
“I scored against Barca, PSG and Valencia,” Brandy says. “When I came back to England, we had a call from Spain.
The man said to my mum: “Are you the mother of Brandy? It was someone from Barcelona. They wanted to know if I’d sign for them.
“My mum put my dad on the phone.
“My dad told me that it was up to me what I did. Even though I was young, I really fancied playing for Barcelona.”
United were not willing to sell him.
Brandy is now at Rochdale in England’s third tier.
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If you go
The flights Etihad (www.etihad.com) and Spice Jet (www.spicejet.com) fly direct from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Pune respectively from Dh1,000 return including taxes. Pune airport is 90 minutes away by road.
The hotels A stay at Atmantan Wellness Resort (www.atmantan.com) costs from Rs24,000 (Dh1,235) per night, including taxes, consultations, meals and a treatment package.
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
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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Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
