When Felix Magath, the former Bayern Munich coach and three times league champion, predicted a few days ago that Bayern would not lose a match during the 51st Bundesliga campaign, relative silence followed.
His may not be the absolute consensus view, but given the resources at their disposal, and the buoyant momentum from Bayern's unprecedented recent success, not many experts have loudly countered the idea that they shape up as potential Invincibles.
Bayern, European club champions, record-setters last season for the speed at which they advanced to the domestic crown, begin their campaign tonight against Borussia Monchengladbach as the figureheads of a league that has seldom felt so good about itself.
And there lies the curiosity. If, as Magath and others suggest, Bayern are so far ahead of the rest domestically, should the Bundesliga not be alarmed at such a perceived imbalance?
Much of the amplified Bundesboasting resounding through elite club football all year has been justified.
The second-best team in Europe's principal competition were Borussia Dortmund, silver medallists in the Uefa Champions League only by a margin of a single goal, having lost 2-1 in the Wembley Stadium final to Bayern.
The third-best on the continent? Well, bronze medals, had they been cast, would have been smelted out of low-grade metal. Bayern were seven goals better than Barcelona in their semi-final, while Dortmund were 4-1 ahead of Real Madrid after the first leg of theirs.
Indeed, there is now an argument that for collective strength and expertise, Bayern's second XI might not be far off consideration as the third-best side in Europe.
Pep Guardiola, whose coaching services were sought by several teams, might not have his entire arsenal when the team opens against Monchengladbach. The line-up might very well exclude names such as Mario Gotze, the €37 million (Dh181.5m) recruit from Dortmund; Mario Madzukic, the striker who led the line in last season's treble; or Luiz Gustavo, who anchored Brazil's midfield in their successful Confederations Cup tournament last month.
Same for the German internationals Toni Kroos, Jerome Boateng and Holger Badstuber, plus the Swiss creator Xherdan Shaqiri, for whom Bayern paid Basel nearly €12m shortly after his 20th birthday 18 months ago.
Gustavo, for one, is voicing his apprehension about the personal implications of such intense competition for places.
In a World Cup year, he wants to keep his Brazil place and is in talks with Bayern executives about whether he might not be more active, week in, week out, if he moved elsewhere.
Most of the 18 German clubs outside Munich and Dortmund would value a player like him.
They have all looked at Bayern as if through the wrong end of a telescope for most of the last 12 months.
Dortmund's second place in the table was 25 points behind first after the 34 fixtures, while third-place Leverkusen trailed the champions by 26.
On the table, things remained interesting well below that trio, and Nuremburg could still have been relegated or finished fourth with only three games left.
But when one soaring superpower turns all the rest into mere scufflers, it does not take long before fans start worrying that the body has become as distant from the head as in the Barcelona-and-Real-Madrid-dominated Spanish Primera Liga.
Guardiola left Barcelona, after three Primera Liga triumphs and two European Cups in four years, partly because the job there became so stressful, politically and psychologically.
That was his first post as a senior first-team coach.
His second confronts him with, patently, a hard act to follow and with players who are bound to scrutinise his endeavours to correct or perfect existing methods.
"Last season everything worked very well," Boateng said, "but with a new coach there will be new ideas."
Among those, as Boateng will have noticed, is an apparent inclination to use Javi Martinez, the Spanish enforcer, more often in central defence than midfield - he is adept at both - which may affect Boateng.
There seems certain to be some adjustment to midfield now that Thiago Alacantara has arrived from Barcelona, very plainly a choice of Guardiola's.
In turn, Gotze, who has had minor fitness problems leading into the season, would seem to put pressure on the range of roles occupied by Arjen Robben, Thomas Muller, Franck Ribery, Kroos and Shaqiri.
The solutions to these conundrums, and Guardiola's man-management while he wrestles with them, dominate the agenda. But the league will not only be about the battles between Bayern A and Bayern B.
Dortmund have contributed interestingly to the refreshed cast-list of the Bundesliga, too, with the acquisitions of midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Shaktar Donetsk and striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Saint-Etienne, a footballer capable of setting the best sprint times in the league.
And Dortmund still have as coach the charismatic Jurgen Klopp, who drew some satisfaction from Dortmund's 4-2 win over Bayern in the German Super Cup two weeks ago.
He does not believe Bayern will win all their domestic matches from now on.
sports@thenational.ae
MORE ON THE US DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES
AndhaDhun
Director: Sriram Raghavan
Producer: Matchbox Pictures, Viacom18
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan
Rating: 3.5/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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
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
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
TOUR DE FRANCE INFO
Dates: July 1-23
Distance: 3,540km
Stages: 21
Number of teams: 22
Number of riders: 198
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.”
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
if you go
It
Director: Andres Muschietti
Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor
Three stars
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The Specs
Engine 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 582bhp (542bhp in GTS model)
Torque: 730Nm
Price: Dh649,000 (Dh549,000 for GTS)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Beach Bum
Director: Harmony Korine
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg
Two stars
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
