Mattia Destro and Alessandro Florenzi hit one apiece for Roma in a 2-0 win over Cagliari that sent the club to the top of Serie A courtesy of superior goal difference on Sunday.
Champions Juventus had gone clear of the pack thanks to a 1-0 win over AC Milan on Saturday thanks to a 71st minute strike from Carlos Tevez at a packed-out San Siro.
However Roma, 5-1 Champions League winners over CSKA Moscow in midweek, continued their fine start to the season with a dominant performance in front of a sparse crowd at the Olympic Stadium.
“We put the same ingredients into this game as we did in our meeting with CSKA in midweek, and it worked,” Roma coach Rudi Garcia told Sky Sports.
“Winning today was very important. It has allowed us to pull three points ahead of Milan.”
Cagliari, now coached by former Roma handler Zdenek Zeman, were looking for their first win of the campaign but from the early stages the Sardinians had their backs to the wall.
After just 10 minutes Florenzi drew the Cagliari defence before rolling a low cross towards the back post, where Destro, unmarked, fired past 20-year-old Serie A debutant Alessio Cragno from close range.
Two minutes later Roma were celebrating again, Seydou Keita sighting Gervinho in space as Cagliari tried to spring the offside trap.
The Ivorian took possession and beat his marker before laying off for Florenzi to beat Cragno with a precise angled strike from the right of goal.
Florenzi celebrated in some style, jumping over a barrier and leaping into the stands to hug his 82-year-old grandmother – and earning a yellow card for his trouble upon his return to the pitch.
“She’d never been to the stadium, and told me after watching an Italy game that she’d come to see me play,” explained Florenzi.
“I promised that if she came and I scored, I would go and give her a hug. So I had to keep my promise.”
Elsewhere, Mauricio Pinilla struck three minutes from time to hand Genoa a 1-0 home win over Lazio to give Gian Piero Gasperini’s side their first win of the season.
Dominant Lazio spurned a series of chances and when Stefan de Vrij received a second yellow card for a handling offence the hosts capitalised to strike three minutes from time.
Earlier, Antonio Cassano hit a double for injury-hit Parma to help claim their first win of the season with a 3-2 defeat of hosts Chievo.
Cassano dedicated his goals to fellow Parma striker Jonathan Biabiany, who has been stopped from playing indefinitely after being diagnosed with a heart problem.
Cassano, who himself underwent a heart operation in 2011, said: “Of course I dedicate my goals to Biabiany, who is someone I really care about.
“I hope he can get back on his feet as soon as possible. I understand what he’s going through.”
Napoli’s stuttering season continued with a 1-0 defeat away to Udinese where Brazilian defender Danilo slid in at the back post to send Kalidou Koulibaly’s wayward header past keeper Rafael Cabral.
Napoli have dropped to sixth from bottom, with Andrea Stramaccioni’s Udinese now up to fourth.
“Until the goal Rafael didn’t have a save to make,” lamented Napoli handler Rafael Benitez.
“It’s a shame because we had the match under control and had plenty of opportunity to win it. Instead, it went the other way.”
Fiorentina also moved up the table thanks to a first win of the campaign secured by Jasmin Kurtic’s 58th minute strike away to Atalanta.
In Sunday’s late games Mateo Kovacic struck for Inter Milan just before the break to level Franco Vazquez’s third-minute strike after he had dispossessed defender Nemanja Vidic to slot the ball past Samir Handanovic.
Inter spurned a late chance to take the points when Stefano Sorrentino palmed Pablo Osvaldo’s header out from under the bar.
Verona, meanwhile, moved up to third place with a 1-0 defeat of winless Torino thanks to Artur Ionita’s 66th minute strike.
Torino could have levelled late but Omar El Kaddouri saw his 88th minute penalty saved by Rafael.
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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
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.”
