For four seasons, he was the undisputed star of the league, the headline act, demoralising defences and bulldozing his way past them with incredulous ease. He topped the scoring charts for the first three of those seasons, by some distance, before Al Jazira’s Mirko Vucinic took over his mantle.
Now Asamoah Gyan has left for China to join Shanghai SIPG, who paid €20 million (Dh81.3m) to Al Ain for his services.
The offer was just too tempting for both Al Ain and Gyan, whose weekly salary of £227,000 (Dh1.3m) puts him among the highest-paid football players in the world, to ignore. Fans across the club divide in UAE, though, will certainly miss his imposing presence.
With 95 goals from 83 Arabian Gulf League appearances, the Ghanaian is assured of a place in local football lore.
Jazira will be champions
The Arabian Gulf Super Cup has shown Al Ain are probably more than capable of defending their league title, with their new overseas players Ryan Babel, Fellipe Bastos and Emmanuel Emenike promising plenty for the coming months.
Al Jazira, however, could thwart the men from the Garden City this time after finishing second last season. The Abu Dhabi side have brought back coach Abel Braga – the Brazilian who in 2010/11 guided Jazira to their only league title – and they have also made some exciting changes to their foreign quartet.
Manuel Lanzini has left for West Ham United, Jonathan Pitroipa has moved to Al Nasr and Jucilei has gone to Chinese club Shandong Luneng.
Jazira have brought in Brazilian midfielder Thiago Neves, winger Jefferson Farfan of Peru and South Korean midfielder Park Jong-woo. With Vucinic staying put, Jazira probably have one of the most explosive foreign quartets in the league.
Now, if they can sort their defence, which was their Achilles heel last season, Jazira fans could be celebrating Braga’s return with their second league title.
Fans will finally fill the stands
Speaking of fans, this season might finally see them massing inside the stadiums, taking every available seat and cheering on their teams. At least, that is the hope of Arabian Gulf League officials, especially with this decision to encrypt all matches on television.
The clubs and the players certainly deserve bigger audiences. The AGL has some coveted stars playing in this league – Jorge Valdivia, Nilmar, Everton Ribeiro, Denilson, Jo, Vucinic, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Madjid Bougherra and Amr Al Sulaya, to name a few – and yet has some of the lowest attendances in Asia.
This needs to change. Fans need to start coming out to the stadiums and support their teams and players.
They, like Abdulrahman said last week, are always trying to give their best, playing in some of the toughest weather conditions anywhere in the world. The least they deserve is a bit of appreciation and encouragement from the stands.
Another goal-fest
Last season saw 562 goals scored in the 182 league matches – an average of three per game. Looking at the players moving to the AGL this season, you can expect those figures to be higher for 2015/16.
The Super Cup, with six goals, was an indication of things to come. Babel, Bastos, Emenike, Neves, Farfan, Valdivia, Nilmar, Denilson, Jo, Al Sulaya, Rodrigo Lima, David Barral, Joaquin Larrivey, Ishak Belfodil and Patrick Friday Eze are just some of the new attacking talents who have arrived over the summer. Spare a thought for the defenders.
Coaching carousel will slow down
Arabian Gulf League clubs have the potential to make this prediction look silly, but fans should see more of their clubs going through the season with the same coach.
Last season had Zlatko Dalic (Al Ain), Eric Gerets (Al Jazira), Cosmin Olaroiu (Al Ahli), Caio Junior (Al Shabab), Ivan Jovanovic (Al Nasr), Luis Garcia (Baniyas), Paulo Bonamigo (Sharjah) and Paulo Comelli (Emirates) stay in their jobs from start to finish, and that number is high keeping in mind the trigger-happy regimes at several clubs.
This year could have even more clubs investing in stability.
Scheduling chaos
In the past two weeks, the uncertainty over the dates of the Gulf Cup of Nations in Kuwait had sown confusion over the start of the season before the Pro League Committee decided to go ahead with the original schedule.
Expect the confusion to continue. The Kuwaiti football federation is unlikely to rescind its decision to postpone the Gulf Cup to next year, despite pressure on it from their government to hold the tournament this December.
If the Kuwaiti federation stands firm and the Gulf Cup is not held this year, league will have to reschedule since it has allotted a one-month break for the regional tournament.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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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.”
if you go
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Brief scoreline:
Wolves 3
Neves 28', Doherty 37', Jota 45' 2
Arsenal 1
Papastathopoulos 80'
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
OIL PLEDGE
At the start of Russia's invasion, IEA member countries held 1.5 billion barrels in public reserves and about 575 million barrels under obligations with industry, according to the agency's website. The two collective actions of the IEA this year of 62.7 million barrels, which was agreed on March 1, and this week's 120 million barrels amount to 9 per cent of total emergency reserves, it added.
