ABU DHABI // Baniyas have hired the World Cup veteran Gabriel Calderon to coach their team, but the Pro League side do not know if he will have the veteran forward, David Trezeguet, in his squad.
Calderon, 51, led Saudi Arabia's qualification to the 2006 World Cup and played for Argentina in the 1982 and 1990 Fifa events. He will take control of the Abu Dhabi club tomorrow, after their league match away to Al Shabab.
Calderon also coached the Oman national team, in 2007/08, and led the Saudi clubs Al Ittihad and Al Hilal to domestic titles.
Despite leading the latter to the league and Crown Prince Cup last season, Calderon was dismissed in July following a 3-0 defeat to Ittihad in the first leg of the King's Cup of Champions.
"He has been around for a long time in the region and the club management felt he had the experience and was the best choice available to take over a team at this stage of the season," said Musaad Al Harthi, a team spokesman.
It is unclear whether Calderon will have Trezeguet at his disposal. The Frenchman, who was part of the winning side at the 1998 World Cup, is out tomorrow with a calf injury, but he also has said he wants his one-year contract with Baniyas terminated.
"We are still trying to persuade him to stay," Al Harthi said. "As it stands, nothing has changed. We hope we can come to an amicable settlement and Trezeguet can continue to stay in the club."
Trezeguet, 34, was the prize Baniyas recruit in the summer.
His contract with the club was thought to be worth as much as Dh9.1 million, but he has played in only four matches and has not scored a goal.
Calderon takes over from Jorvan Vieira, the Brazilian who was removed in late October following the team's poor start, managing only two draws against Ajman - one in the Etisalat Cup and one in the Pro League - in seven games.
Salem Al Orafi, a former Baniyas player and the technical director of the club, has led them to a 4-1 league victory over Emirates and two Etisalat Cup victories over Sharjah.
Al Orafi, in his last game, will travel to Shabab with a depleted squad. Four key players - Mohammed Fawzi, Amer Abdulrahman, Haboush Saleh and Ahmed Ali - are in the UAE Olympic team, who play Iraq in a London 2012 qualifier on Sunday.
In other games, Franky Vercauteren, the Al Jazira coach, has called on his team to give a full effort against the league's less-prominent sides.
Jazira, winners of the league and President's Cup double last season, have been held to draws by Emirates and Sharjah, and travel to the promoted side Ajman tonight.
"When I came here I was told that against little teams they have trouble," the Belgian said, using his fingers to signal quote marks around the word "little".
"Ajman is a difficult team to play with, particularly on their home pitch," the Belgian said. "They have a lot of hard-working players with good fighting spirit. … If you want to win against them, you have to match their fighting spirit."
Maradona may return for Emirates clash
Four days after his mother's funeral in Argentina, Diego Maradona may be in the dugout for Al Wasl on Friday when they resume Pro League play at Emirates.
The manager left the club shortly after Wasl's 1-0 Etisalat Cup defeat at Al Ain this past Saturday, but his mother reportedly died while her son was en route. She was 81.
Wasl topped Emirates 3-0 in a cup game in September.
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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
Why are you, you?
Why are you, you?
From this question, a new beginning.
From this question, a new destiny.
For you are a world, and a meeting of worlds.
Our dream is to unite that which has been
separated by history.
To return the many to the one.
A great story unites us all,
beyond colour and creed and gender.
The lightning flash of art
And the music of the heart.
We reflect all cultures, all ways.
We are a twenty first century wonder.
Universal ideals, visions of art and truth.
Now is the turning point of cultures and hopes.
Come with questions, leave with visions.
We are the link between the past and the future.
Here, through art, new possibilities are born. And
new answers are given wings.
Why are you, you?
Because we are mirrors of each other.
Because together we create new worlds.
Together we are more powerful than we know.
We connect, we inspire, we multiply illuminations
with the unique light of art.
Ben Okri,
The five pillars of Islam
How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last-16, second leg (first-leg scores in brackets):
PSG (2) v Manchester United (0)
Midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
Washmen Profile
Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Laundry
Employees: 170
Funding: about $8m
Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 0
Manchester City 2
Bernardo Silva 54', Sane 66'
Fight card
Bantamweight
Siyovush Gulmamadov (TJK) v Rey Nacionales (PHI)
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROM) v Hussein Fakhir Abed (SYR)
Catch 74kg
Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) v Omar Hussein (JOR)
Strawweight (Female)
Weronika Zygmunt (POL) v Seo Ye-dam (KOR)
Featherweight
Kaan Ofli (TUR) v Walid Laidi (ALG)
Lightweight
Leandro Martins (BRA) v Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW)
Welterweight
Ahmad Labban (LEB) v Sofiane Benchohra (ALG)
Bantamweight
Jaures Dea (CAM) v Nawras Abzakh (JOR)
Lightweight
Mohammed Yahya (UAE) v Glen Ranillo (PHI)
Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) v Aidan Aguilera (AUS)
Welterweight
Mounir Lazzez (TUN) Sasha Palatnikov (HKG)
Featherweight title bout
Romando Dy (PHI) v Lee Do-gyeom (KOR)
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
