I was in Abu Dhabi on Sunday when I found out Gary Speed had died. I was stunned.
My first reaction was that it was a hoax. Then a cold shiver ran through me. It was only two months ago when Gary came over to me, smiling.
We were both at Derby County to play a game to raise money for John Hartson's cancer foundation. It was a team of former England players against former Welsh players. We would be on opposite sides.
"Coley," Speed said. "Don't be tackling like you did in Barbados."
I had to smile and hold my hands up. I had been away with him to participate in a veterans' tournament in June and I took it all a bit seriously. Some of the lads wanted to have a break and a kick about, I was the captain of a Manchester United team and wanted to win it, which we did.
And I smiled at the cheek of Speed telling me to go easy in tackles. This was the man, after all, who caught Roy Keane with a late tackle two minutes into the 1999 FA Cup final.
It was so outrageous that it did the ligaments in Roy's good ankle and he had to leave the field.
"Poor Speed," I thought. "You do not do that to Roy. He will get you back."
Keane was snapping about him after the game so much that it was funny. Keane and Speed had some great battles, but they respected each other.
I liked Speed. People in football did. I rated him very highly as a player. He was great at set pieces, boasted a lovely left foot and would arrive in the box late from midfield and score goals. He could leave his foot in like he did with Keane, but if someone left their foot in on him he would get on with things.
He was an honest player. More than anything, he had a magnificent leap. I heard many rival managers say: "Watch Speed in the air. He's not the tallest but don't let that fool you."
I also respected him as a person.
He was a great professional who was doing very well in management.
He carried himself with dignity and seemed to have it all - the regard of his peers, a wonderful family, good looks and he was financially set for life.
There were never any question marks about Gary Speed. Now there are plenty, with so much speculation about why he committed suicide.
I have been speaking with many people in football, and they and I don't have the slightest inkling.
There were no hints that he was in any kind of trouble, nothing. I have been alone in a hotel all week and thought a lot about why he would want to hang himself.
This was not someone taking an overdose hoping that he would be found; this is someone who wanted to end his life.
I just can't get my head around why Speed took his life. He was still in the game and doing really well as the Wales manager. His life was perfect to outsiders, but obviously not to him.
It is not always easy for former footballers.
Some personalities struggle to handle it when the adulation and money stops. I have seen it in others. The adulation thing has never been an issue for me, I genuinely enjoyed playing football and feel thankful for the career I had.
I have now moved on and enjoy the life I have, but I would be lying if I said that about all my former teammates. Some have found it very difficult to cope after they stopped playing, and people cannot understand why because they think that players are wealthy and that money is the solution to everything.
It isn't.
I am lucky to have money and to have been able to enjoy it. I also appreciate it because I didn't have any growing up, but wealthy people have problems like anyone else.
Money makes life easier, but it does not allow you to waive your personal problems and it is not the solution to everything.
I admire Stan Collymore, the former Liverpool and Aston Villa forward, greatly for talking publicly about his depression. Mental distress of any degree is seen as a weakness in football, but the more people who come out and talk about mental illness, then less stigma will be attached to it.
I got a text from a close friend the other day that read: "Do me a favour. Will you promise me that if you ever feel down about anything, you will come and talk to me?"
And I think I would. I would also like to think that I could speak to my wife and family if I was ever feeling desperate.
What a great sadness that Speed didn't do the same before it was too late.
Andrew Cole's column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten
sports@thenational.ae
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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Stats at a glance:
Cost: 1.05 billion pounds (Dh 4.8 billion)
Number in service: 6
Complement 191 (space for up to 285)
Top speed: over 32 knots
Range: Over 7,000 nautical miles
Length 152.4 m
Displacement: 8,700 tonnes
Beam: 21.2 m
Draught: 7.4 m
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.”
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
'Shakuntala Devi'
Starring: Vidya Balan, Sanya Malhotra
Director: Anu Menon
Rating: Three out of five stars
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
