My old strike partner Dwight Yorke retired this week, aged 37. He was at Sunderland last season, but he'll best be remembered for his time at Manchester United, especially when we won the 1999 treble. Dwight should have won more, but I'll come to that.
When he joined United in August 1998 from Aston Villa, strikers Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Teddy Sheringham were at the club and I wasn't certain of my future. Sir Alex Ferguson had tried to sign Patrick Kluivert, but that fell through and United paid £12.6 million (Dh76.6m) for Dwight.
I was the striker United could have sold for the most and my fears were realised as I was on the bench a lot. I did start at Southampton and we won 3-0, with Dwight and I scoring in only our second game as a strike pairing. The manager saw something.
I liked Yorkey straight away and admired how he was completely unfazed by his huge transfer fee. Not many strikers settle as quickly at Old Trafford like Dwight.
We were totally different people. Dwight was, 'Look at me, I play for United, I've got a nice bird and car'. I'm the opposite. I bought a Porsche one year but was so self-conscious that I couldn't drive it. It took me two months to drive it to training. Yorkey had no such worries.
I invited him round to our house to spend time with my family. We went shopping together and I'd often call to remind him what time training was - because he always forgot.
When we started playing together, it was like meeting a special woman and falling in love. Everything felt right. Whatever he did, I did the opposite. We never had a cross word. If I was upset with him or he with me, we'd look at each other and say 'OK'.
Dwight's arrival changed my whole United career and our partnership got stronger. One game stands out - against Champions League favourites Barcelona away in 1998-99. We were behind after one minute. Yorkey equalised after 25 minutes after I combined with him. I then put us ahead, and ran to the corner to celebrate with a group of United fans sitting in the home end. Rivaldo levelled for Barca, before Yorkey struck again: 3-3.
After that, the biggest clubs in Europe were saying: stop Cole and Yorke and we stop Man United.
But they couldn't. Our confidence soared and we thought we'd score every week. If one of us didn't score, the other would. We could alter our play depending on the opposition: I'd go long, he'd go short. Nobody knew how to mark us. At times, we had so much space that we took liberties.
If one player lived the dream, it was Dwight. He always played with a beaming smile. Maybe he lived it too much because, if I'm brutally honest, for a boy of his talent Dwight never fulfilled his potential. He was one of the fittest footballers I played with and his ability was up there with the best of them. After the treble, though, I felt that he eased off. I told him and so did Roy Keane.
If he had put his nut down and worked, Dwight could have become a United legend.
Dwight is from a small Caribbean island and I'm of Caribbean descent. I know the mentality - when you reach the top, you relax and ease off. What more could Dwight do? He'd won the treble.
Sometimes he relaxed too much, like when he fell asleep in the middle of the pitch during a training session before a pre-season tour game in Australia.
Like me, Dwight moved to Blackburn where I saw him lose his temper for the only time. Manager Graeme Souness bought us together hoping that we would replicate our United success.
There was a problem: Blackburn didn't have the quality we'd had around us at Old Trafford. That led to Souness falling out of love with the pair of us and we felt that he was trying to knife us.
Souness did Dwight in a tackle in training, causing a gash so deep in his shin that you could see the white of his bone.
He could have broken his leg. Dwight was still spitting bullets when I heard the commotion as he slaughtered Souness in the canteen - right in front of Blackburn's chief executive. Dwight was saying: 'Graeme Souness, the big hard man who bullies his own players?' He destroyed him verbally. Dwight played 480 club games and scored 147 goals, including 64 in 151 appearances for United. More of those goals should have come at United, but I'm picking holes in a great career.
I saw him two weeks ago and he said: 'These players today on £100,000 a week. If I earned that money I'd live like a £100,000 a week player with the best cars and birds."
"What do you mean Yorkey?" I replied. "You already did."
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
'THE WORST THING YOU CAN EAT'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The UN General Assembly President in quotes:
YEMEN: “The developments we have seen are promising. We really hope that the parties are going to respect the agreed ceasefire. I think that the sense of really having the political will to have a peace process is vital. There is a little bit of hope and the role that the UN has played is very important.”
PALESTINE: “There is no easy fix. We need to find the political will and comply with the resolutions that we have agreed upon.”
OMAN: “It is a very important country in our system. They have a very important role to play in terms of the balance and peace process of that particular part of the world, in that their position is neutral. That is why it is very important to have a dialogue with the Omani authorities.”
REFORM OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL: “This is complicated and it requires time. It is dependent on the effort that members want to put into the process. It is a process that has been going on for 25 years. That process is slow but the issue is huge. I really hope we will see some progress during my tenure.”
The specs: 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk
Price, base: Dh399,999
Engine: Supercharged 6.2-litre V8
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 707hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 875Nm @ 4,800rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 16.8L / 100km (estimate)
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
Company profile
Company: Eighty6
Date started: October 2021
Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 25 employees
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investment: $1 million
Investors: Seed funding, angel investors
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo and dual electric motors
Power: 300hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 520Nm at 1,500-3,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.0L/100km
Price: from Dh199,900
On sale: now
Profile Idealz
Company: Idealz
Founded: January 2018
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Size: (employees): 22
Investors: Co-founders and Venture Partners (9 per cent)
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%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A