A hat-trick would do it, carry Antoine Griezmann into immortality as the greatest goalscorer in the history of Atletico Madrid. The three goals he needs, on current form, will come soon enough. But it would be a piquant touch if he edged closer to the landmark on Sunday, at Barcelona, the club who interrupted his long romance with Atletico.
Griezmann is not a prolific scorer of hat-tricks, although he did register his fourth in Atletico colours in October at Celta Vigo, part of the golden sequence of performances that, when it isn’t featuring goals, is showing off the ever broader repertoire of a player who, at 32, appears more in command of his game than ever. He’s the forward who has evolved into an accomplished midfielder when the circumstances demand; in his delivery of passes in open play or from a dead ball, there is ever greater finesse and variety.
Most of all, Griezmann looks utterly at one with his environment, and with the plans and strategies of his boss. He and Diego Simeone, Atletico’s head coach, go back a long way. When Griezmann lines up against Barcelona, in La Liga’s heavyweight clash of the weekend, he will be doing so for the 360th time under the long-serving Simeone.
Their time together could have stretched even longer, Griezmann long ago overtaken Luis Aragones’s record of 173 Atletico goals, a landmark set almost 50 years ago. But in 2018, four years after moving to Madrid from Real Sociedad, the France international became restless. He wanted to be somewhere with a better guarantee of trophies. He wondered if a different club, and a different coach, might provide a better platform for his creativity than the Atletico of Simeone, with its basic template of dogged defence and counter-attack.
Griezmann flirted very publicly with a transfer to Barcelona, then stepped back from a move Barca had pushed for and then, having angered supporters and executives of both clubs with his prevarications, went through with the transfer a year later. Barca paid over €100m for Griezmann.
The move was not a great success, but the impulse that drove it has since been revisited by another €100m footballer, many years younger than Griezmann but with some of the same skill-set.
Joao Felix has spent much of the last 12 months airing his dissatisfaction with the way Simeone likes the game to be played, and their breach had seismic repercussions. Felix, signed from Benfica as a 19-year-old on the back of the fees Atletico received from Barcelona for Griezmann in 2019, is the most expensive player to join Atletico. Given his qualities, a playmaker of vision and delicate touch, his arrival pointed towards a more aesthetic football than the traditional Simeone stereotype. But after three years, Felix was unpersuaded: Atletico, as he put it in one interview, favour the football of “endurance, soaking up pressure.”
In January, Felix moved, on loan, to Chelsea in search of something better suited to his style. He found instead a club in haphazard transition. In August, still an Atletico property, he joined Barca on loan. So far, so promising. He scored on his home debut; three nights ago, he tucked in the goal that secured Barcelona’s leadership of their Champions League group.
There are signs of a growing complicity with Barca head coach, Xavi. Felix is at the front of the long queue for a starting place in Barcelona’s front three. Shortly before he completed Barca’s comeback from a goal behind against Porto on Tuesday, coach and player were spotted conferring on the touchline during a break in play, Xavi saying: “This is your moment”. When Felix promptly thudded a drive off the Porto crossbar and later netted the winning goal, the words looked prophetic, or at least inspiring.
Back in 2019, Griezmann also made a decent start to his Barca career. Like Felix, he scored on his home debut. But two years later, he was back at Atletico, initially on loan, and then, for a fraction of the cost of what Barcelona paid for him, permanently. The move to Catalonia had not worked out for the player or for Barca.
There was scepticism among Atletico fans about Griezmann’s return, a lingering sense of betrayal. But to listen to Simeone now is to recognise all is forgiven. Griezmann, with 13 goals already this season, is soaring. “Not everybody felt OK about him coming back,” Simeone recalled recently, “but I was convinced Griezmann was born to play for Atletico. I feel lucky to be the coach of a player like him.”
Up against Barca, with whom Atletico are tied on points but just ahead, in third spot, on goal difference, this is Griezmann’s moment. But Joao Felix, up against Diego Simeone and Atletico for the first time, has every motivation to turn it into his.
Wydad 2 Urawa 3
Wydad Nahiri 21’, Hajhouj 90'
Urawa Antonio 18’, 60’, Kashiwagi 26’
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
The Greatest Royal Rumble card as it stands
50-man Royal Rumble
Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos
Casket match The Undertaker v Chris Jericho
John Cena v Triple H
Matches to be announced
WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship, United States Championship and the Cruiserweight Championship are all due to be defended
The specs: Volvo XC40
Price: base / as tested: Dh185,000
Engine: 2.0-litre, turbocharged in-line four-cylinder
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 250hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 350Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.4L / 100km
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
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Country-size land deals
US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:
Louisiana Purchase
If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.
Florida Purchase Treaty
The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty.
Alaska purchase
America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".
The Philippines
At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million.
US Virgin Islands
It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
Gwadar
The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees.
Zidane's managerial achievements
La Liga: 2016/17
Spanish Super Cup: 2017
Uefa Champions League: 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18
Uefa Super Cup: 2016, 2017
Fifa Club World Cup: 2016, 2017
PSA DUBAI WORLD SERIES FINALS LINE-UP
Men’s:
Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY)
Ali Farag (EGY)
Simon Rosner (GER)
Tarek Momen (EGY)
Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL)
Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
Nick Matthew (ENG)
Women's:
Nour El Sherbini (EGY)
Raneem El Welily (EGY)
Nour El Tayeb (EGY)
Laura Massaro (ENG)
Joelle King (NZE)
Camille Serme (FRA)
Nouran Gohar (EGY)
Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders
Stuart Kells, Counterpoint Press
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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7.
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
NO OTHER LAND
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Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
