Fifa’s hierarchy and Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s president, ran him close, but Brazilian-turned-Spanish striker Diego Costa can take away one prize at the World Cup – the most-booed man in Brazil.
A cacophony of boos and whistles greeted Costa’s every touch in his two games, which brought a 5-1 thumping at Dutch hands and a 2-0 loss to Chile as Spain made the quickest exit from contention by a defending champion.
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It was scant consolation that Costa did not have that many touches – just 50, according to the statisticians – and five shots on goal, none on target.
Social media was quick to mock.
Under the line “Diego’s Costa’s best goals at the World Cup”, contributor FutballTweets posted a mocked up YouTube image bearing the caption: “This video does not exist.”
The Atletico Madrid star could have been battling Luiz Felipe Scolari favourite Fred for the chance to lead the line for Brazil, but he elected to take Spanish nationality and dump dreams of stardom for the country of his birth.
For Spain, he sank without trace as “tiki-taka” and his own bustling style proved incompatible, Chile and their three central defenders barring his route to goal.
The jeers rained down louder than ever as coach Vicente Del Bosque sent on Fernando Torres and hauled off Costa, who grew up in the north-eastern town of Lagarto and began his career in Portugal with Braga.
Both are set to compete for the main striker’s role at Chelsea next season as he declared after the Chile disaster that “my future is more over there than at Atletico”, with whom he won the Spanish league.
Reports in the English media on Monday said he had already completed a medical with a view to a €40-million (Dh199.6m) move.
Costa appeared in two friendlies for Brazil last year before pledging allegiance to Spain, prompting a bemused Scolari to state: “He is turning his back on a dream of millions, to represent our national team, the five-time champions in a World Cup in Brazil.”
After seeing his dreams of glory with Spain in his homeland turn to dust, Costa said: “It’s been a good year in many respects but a tough one in others.”
Despite his World Cup travails Costa appears to have a big fan in the Chelsea coach, Jose Mourinho, who complained about a lack of strikers at Stamford Bridge last season despite having €60m man Torres, Demba Ba and Samuel Eto’o in his ranks.
The Spanish sports daily Marca earlier this week quoted Mourinho as saying that “Costa is a footballer I want in my team.”
Under Mourinho, the fact that, as Brazilian media suggested on Thursday, “Spanish tiki-taka and Costa are incompatible”, will not be an issue.
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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.
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.”
T20 World Cup Qualifier
October 18 – November 2
Opening fixtures
Friday, October 18
ICC Academy: 10am, Scotland v Singapore, 2.10pm, Netherlands v Kenya
Zayed Cricket Stadium: 2.10pm, Hong Kong v Ireland, 7.30pm, Oman v UAE
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rameez Shahzad, Darius D’Silva, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zawar Farid, Ghulam Shabber, Junaid Siddique, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Waheed Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Zahoor Khan
Players out: Mohammed Naveed, Shaiman Anwar, Qadeer Ahmed
Players in: Junaid Siddique, Darius D’Silva, Waheed Ahmed
