Lionel Messi is now the face of Sayyar, a men's fashion brand in Saudi Arabia.
The sports star, who's also the kingdom's tourism ambassador, appears in a video posted by the company on its social media platforms. In the short clip, Messi is in full Gulf attire, with a traditional white thobe and red-and-white shemagh, or scarf, on his head.
He poses for the camera, in between shots of him fixing the headdress. It ends with him holding an orange box featuring the name of the brand.
“Wear a 'Signature R' shemagh, the same as Goat #MessiElegeace,” the caption reads. Goat is an acronym for Greatest Of All Time, which was first used to describe boxer Muhammad Ali.
The company sells more than a dozen types of shemagh, also called ghutrah or keffiyeh depending on the area of the Middle East it is from. The traditional headdress, fashioned from a scarf, is worn by men in the region. Colours vary, but the most famous are red and white or black and white. A piece costs around $81 at Sayyar.
Aside from the scarves, the company also sells all sorts of undergarments, including a vest collection, as well as a perfume line.
In previous Saudi advertisements, Messi is seen highlighting the kingdom's vast tourism offerings. A video released in January shows the football star playing ball and figuratively breaking stereotypes about the Gulf country, which is normally described as having a “closed culture” or a place where “not much is happening”.
This is part of the Saudi government's major push to attract more tourists and diversify its economy by investing in tourism, tapping international celebrities such as Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
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The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
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Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
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The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
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