Captain Wayne Rooney moved to within one goal of Bobby Charlton’s England scoring record on Sunday by clinching a 3-2 victory over Slovenia in 2016 European Championship qualifying.
Rooney’s 48th international goal – level with Gary Lineker’s England haul – made it six wins out of six for the Group E leaders.
Before Rooney moved closer to the scoring landmark, midfielder Jack Wilshere got his first two England goals in his 28th game.
The victory ensured England completed the season unbeaten for the first time in 24 years – 12 months after the team’s worst World Cup performance – and makes qualifying for Euro 2016 a near certainty. England surged nine points in front of Slovenia.
“It’s great to score the winner and it was a great team performance,” Rooney said.
“We were unlucky to be 1-0 down and we spoke about that at half time, and came out on the front foot.”
Milivoje Novakovic exploited England’s sloppiness to give Slovenia a half-time lead, but Wilshere scored two slick, long-range strikes to put the visitors in front.
Although Nejc Pecnik headed in an 84th-minute equaliser, Rooney pounced two minutes later after collecting a pass from substitute Theo Walcott to steal the limelight from Wilshere.
“Jack and myself have formed a good understanding on the pitch,” Rooney said. “Hopefully he stays injury free and he will be a top player in world football.”
The goals for Wilshere come at the end of another injury-blighted season for Arsenal, where his off-field conduct has come in for criticism.
“It’s nice to get a first couple of goals for England,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming and I had chances in previous games.
“Usually in that area for Arsenal we play a bit more, but the first one came, I hit it and it went in. I want to add more goals. Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes – they all scored for England and I want that.”
Also in Group E, Estonia went fourth with a 2-0 win at last-place San Marino thanks to two goals from Sergei Zenjov.
In Moscow, a spectacular overhead kick from Marc Janko gave Austria an impressive 1-0 win in Russia to put them in control of Group G.
Janko’s acrobatic strike stunned the Moscow crowd and Austria held firm to move to 16 points from six matches, eight ahead of third-placed Russia.
The hosts made a nervous start and Austria deservedly took the lead after 33 minutes.
Following a defensive mix-up, the ball was only cleared as far as Janko, who produced a spectacular finish.
In Vaduz, Liechtenstein and Moldova drew 1-1 as both remained at the bottom end of Group G, while Ukraine beat Luxembourg 3-0 in Lviv in the early match in Group C.
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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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