Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, congratulates Schalke's goalkeeper Manuel Neuer after his fine display in the game between the two teams last week.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, congratulates Schalke's goalkeeper Manuel Neuer after his fine display in the game between the two teams last week.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, congratulates Schalke's goalkeeper Manuel Neuer after his fine display in the game between the two teams last week.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, congratulates Schalke's goalkeeper Manuel Neuer after his fine display in the game between the two teams last week.

Fortune has smiled on Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer


Ian Hawkey
  • English
  • Arabic

Manuel Neuer is under scrutiny tonight at Old Trafford. It is ever the case for a visiting goalkeeper at the so-called Theatre of Dreams on a big European night, but the looks cast in the direction of the young Schalke 04 goalkeeper will be both admiring and acquisitive from a large number of the 70,000 present.

Manchester United, who hold a daunting two goal advantage from the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against the German club, are looking for a new goalkeeper to replace Edwin van der Sar, who is to retire in June.

A large consensus among their fans has it that no keeper they have so far seen this season has been more impressive than the 25-year-old Neuer, who protected Schalke from a rout in Gelsenkirchen eight days ago.

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Even before Peter Schmeichel, the Danish keeper who played such a decisive part in making United English football's most successful club in the Premier League and Champions League era, had described Neuer as "probably the best goalkeeper in the world" after watching him defy United again and again in the first leg, longer-term followers of United had seen a bit of Schmeichel in Neuer.

It is not just the well-built frame and the blond hair. It is something in the technique, too.

Neuer is a mobile and aggressive goalkeeper, quick off his line and pugnacious in the kinds of one-on-one duels United's strikers obliged him frequently to take on in the first 90 minutes of the tie.

His manoeuvres in those confrontations recalled Schmeichel's "star-shape", the technique the Dane sometimes used to claim as his own patent, a wide spread not only of outstretched arms, but also of the legs, minimising the sight of the target available to an advancing opponent.

Schmeichel used to tell how a background playing handball, a popular sport in northern Europe, had honed his skills in that aspect of goalkeeping.

Likewise Neuer, who recently told the German newspaper Bild-Zeiting: "I have always been a big handball fan, and I watched a lot of the last handball World Cup. You do learn things as a goalkeeper from that sport."

Raul, the former Real Madrid striker who joined Schalke last summer, suggests another point of comparison for Neuer: Iker Casillas, the Real and Spain goalkeeper.

"I didn't know too much about him before I came here," said Raul, "but the saves he makes in training are incredible.

"He also has a strong and accurate throw. He may even turn out to be more complete than Casillas as a goalkeeper."

Neuer grew up close to Gelsenkirchen, a Schalke supporter whose idol was Jens Lehmann, the former Schalke and Germany keeper whose long career has lately been reactivated by Arsenal.

As a teenager he won caps at age-group level for Germany but his career was threatened six years ago when he broke a thumb in two places in training.

The digit still carries a long scar and the recovery cost him four months out of action.

The Champions League run has helped raise Neuer's global profile, and indeed his value in the transfer market.

After his first showing against United, Schalke's directors were eagerly offsetting the disappointment of a 2-0 defeat with praise for the goalkeeper.

"He showed against United how much he is worth," Clemens Tonnies, the Schalke president, said.

Horst Heldt, the general manager, added: "If someone offered €100 million (Dh530m) for him, we'd obviously have to think about it."

This was strategic, and a little disingenuous.

Neuer has his mind set on a move this summer and every indication is that it will be to Bayern Munich, with whom he has been in fruitful talks, in the knowledge his contract with Schalke expires in 2012.

Any United interest in Neuer stalls at that fact. But a sale price between Schalke and Bayern is not yet agreed. Heldt and Tonnies remain keen to push it upwards of the €20m Bayern want to pay.

Neuer will almost certainly begin next season in Munich, and firmly installed as No 1 in the German national team.

Even 12 months ago, that was a scenario he might have aspired to, but could not be certain of.

After the tragic death of Robert Enke, the former Hannover goalkeeper who committed suicide in late 2009, Joachim Loew, the German head coach, appeared to have settled on Rene Adler, the 26-year-old Bayer Leverkusen custodian, as his first choice for last summer's World Cup.

Adler then suffered a rib injury in the immediate lead-up to the tournament and was ruled out of travelling to South Africa. Neuer would thus be promoted.

He helped steer Germany to the semi-finals, has now been instrumental in guiding Schalke to an unlikely place in the last four of European club football's top competition and, when he looks at the scar on his thumb, cannot help thinking how fortune has smiled on him.

The match-up

Key Battle

Dimitar Berbatov v Christophe Metzelder

None of Schalke’s outfield players came out with any credit from the first leg and they will want to put that right. The German side need a mammoth defensive effort to turn things around, led by their international centre-back Metzelder, below. Berbatov, United’s top scorer, should start and he knows German football well, having spent five years with Bayer Leverkusen.

Tactics

Do United stick or twist? One goal and the tie is effectively dead, but if they concede then things start to get nervy. On the first leg showing, they have too much class for Schalke. If Schalke need inspiration for the tough task ahead – they need three goals to win in normal time – they should be watching the video of their 5-2 win at Inter Milan in the quarter-final again and again and again.

Previous meetings
Last week's 2-0 win for United was the first time these side's have met

Probable line-ups

Man Utd (4-4-2) Van der Sar; Rafael, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra; Scholes, Carrick, Park, Valencia; Owen, Berbatov
Schalke (4-3-3) Neuer; Sarpei, Papadopoulos, Metzelder, Uchida; Matip, Baumjohann, Jurado; Farfan, Raul, Edu

Facts

• United need one more goal for their 300th in the Champions League.
• Schalke have played four matches in England, losing three and drawing one.

FA Cup fifth round draw

Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester City
Reading/Cardiff City v Sheffield United
Chelsea v Shrewsbury Town/Liverpool
West Bromwich Albion v Newcastle United/Oxford United
Leicester City v Coventry City/Birmingham City
Northampton Town/Derby County v Manchester United
Southampton/Tottenham Hotspur v Norwich City
Portsmouth v Arsenal 

In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
  • Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000 
  • Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000 
  • Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000 
  • Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000 
  • HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000 
  • Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000 
  • Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000 
  • Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000 
  • Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000 
  • Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000 
  • Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000 
  • Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
  • Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
  • Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Key recommendations
  • Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
  • Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
  • Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
  • More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

The struggle is on for active managers

David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.

The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.

Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.

Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.

Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.

At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn. 

Key changes

Commission caps

For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:

• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term). 

• On the protection component, there is a cap  of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).

• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated. 

• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.

• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.

Disclosure

Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.

“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”

Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.

Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.

“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.

Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.

Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015

- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France

Six large-scale objects on show
  • Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
  • The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
  • A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
  • Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
  • A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
  • Torrijos Palace dome
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Calls

Directed by: Fede Alvarez

Starring: Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillian, Aaron Taylor-Johnson

4/5

Results

Women finals: 48kg - Urantsetseg Munkhbat (MGL) bt Distria Krasniqi (KOS); 52kg - Odette Guiffrida (ITA) bt Majlinda Kelmendi (KOS); 57kg - Nora Gjakova (KOS) bt Anastasiia Konkina (Rus)

Men’s finals: 60kg - Amiran Papinashvili (GEO) bt Francisco Garrigos (ESP); 66kg - Vazha Margvelashvili (Geo) bt Yerlan Serikzhanov (KAZ)

Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202-litre%204-cylinder%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E268hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E380Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh208%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Co%20Chocolat%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Iman%20and%20Luchie%20Suguitan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Food%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241%20million-plus%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Fahad%20bin%20Juma%2C%20self-funding%2C%20family%20and%20friends%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs

Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors

Power: Combined output 920hp

Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic

Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km

On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025

Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000

What is Folia?

Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal's new plant-based menu will launch at Four Seasons hotels in Dubai this November. A desire to cater to people looking for clean, healthy meals beyond green salad is what inspired Prince Khaled and American celebrity chef Matthew Kenney to create Folia. The word means "from the leaves" in Latin, and the exclusive menu offers fine plant-based cuisine across Four Seasons properties in Los Angeles, Bahrain and, soon, Dubai.

Kenney specialises in vegan cuisine and is the founder of Plant Food Wine and 20 other restaurants worldwide. "I’ve always appreciated Matthew’s work," says the Saudi royal. "He has a singular culinary talent and his approach to plant-based dining is prescient and unrivalled. I was a fan of his long before we established our professional relationship."

Folia first launched at The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2018. It is available at the poolside Cabana Restaurant and for in-room dining across the property, as well as in its private event space. The food is vibrant and colourful, full of fresh dishes such as the hearts of palm ceviche with California fruit, vegetables and edible flowers; green hearb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa; and a savoury coconut cream pie with macadamia crust.

In March 2019, the Folia menu reached Gulf shores, as it was introduced at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, where it is served at the Bay View Lounge. Next, on Tuesday, November 1 – also known as World Vegan Day – it will come to the UAE, to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and the Four Seasons DIFC, both properties Prince Khaled has spent "considerable time at and love". 

There are also plans to take Folia to several more locations throughout the Middle East and Europe.

While health-conscious diners will be attracted to the concept, Prince Khaled is careful to stress Folia is "not meant for a specific subset of customers. It is meant for everyone who wants a culinary experience without the negative impact that eating out so often comes with."

The Africa Institute 101

Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction. 

Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters

The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.

 Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.

A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.

The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.

The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.

Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.

Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment

But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.

South Africa v India schedule

Tests: 1st Test Jan 5-9, Cape Town; 2nd Test Jan 13-17, Centurion; 3rd Test Jan 24-28, Johannesburg

ODIs: 1st ODI Feb 1, Durban; 2nd ODI Feb 4, Centurion; 3rd ODI Feb 7, Cape Town; 4th ODI Feb 10, Johannesburg; 5th ODI Feb 13, Port Elizabeth; 6th ODI Feb 16, Centurion

T20Is: 1st T20I Feb 18, Johannesburg; 2nd T20I Feb 21, Centurion; 3rd T20I Feb 24, Cape Town

FIXTURES

Saturday
5.30pm: Shabab Al Ahli v Al Wahda
5.30pm: Khorfakkan v Baniyas
8.15pm: Hatta v Ajman
8.15pm: Sharjah v Al Ain
Sunday
5.30pm: Kalba v Al Jazira
5.30pm: Fujairah v Al Dhafra
8.15pm: Al Nasr v Al Wasl

New UK refugee system

 

  • A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
  • Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
  • A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
  • To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
  • Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
  • Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
Tamkeen's offering
  • Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
  • Option 2: 50% across three years
  • Option 3: 30% across five years 
While you're here