Hector Cuper could scarcely differ more from the previous Argentinian hired as head coach at Al Wasl.
If Diego Maradona, even in his 50s, remains impulsive, whimsical, given to extravagant gesture, Cuper has always seemed the professional epitome of stoicism, a person for whom order and discretion are bred into his bones.
But like Maradona, he is addicted to the sport which has given him a good living, 20 years of it as a coach.
What football has not provided Cuper, at crucial moments, is good fortune. His burden is to carry the label of serial runner-up.
It may be an unfair caricature of a man who has tackled a variety of jobs, in a range of places, and excelled at some of them. Most notably, at Inter Milan and Valencia, he gained global respect and renown.
At both of those jobs he lifted the clubs. But at both of them, he could not quite burnish a body of sound, impressive work with the silverware he came so close to that he could almost touch it.
At Inter, the Cuper era – which lasted just over two seasons – is now remembered chiefly for the lost title. Inter had hired him as the umpteenth solution to a neurotic, 12-year period without a league title, a pursuit at which huge money had been hurled.
He got nearer than many of his predecessors, and enjoyed unusually sustained support from Massimo Moratti, Inter’s president at that time. But on the last day of his first season, 2001/02, Inter blew their big chance.
They led the table going into the final fixture, away at Lazio, a point clear of Juventus. They took an early lead, then suffered an equaliser.
They led again, and then were drawn back to parity by Lazio. This was a Lazio side with little to play for and a Lazio side whose fans, in many cases, were urging their own team to lose to keep the title from Juve – a fiercer enemy of the Rome club than are Inter.
Lazio won 4-2. Once again Inter had turned brittle, the frailty that Cuper, stern, organised and unemotional, had been brought in to cure. Juventus won the league that year and the next, in which Inter finished second, a greater distance behind.
Cuper had been recruited by Inter after his successes in Spain. He moved there after spells in charge of Lanus and Huracan, the latter the Buenos Aires club where he spent the final years of his career as a centre-back good enough to have won five caps for Argentina in the Maradona epoch.
On Real Mallorca’s bench, he made an instant impact. Playing disciplined, not especially decorative football, Mallorca reached a domestic cup final in 1998. The next year, they made it to an unprecedented European final, the old Cup Winners Cup. They lost both, although the idea that silver medals, never golds were some sort of Cuper jinx had not yet taken hold.
At Valencia, he guided a rugged team to successive Uefa Champions League finals, in 2000 and 2001. To get there at all exceeded anything Valencia had ever achieved, although for many Spaniards the sharp-minded engineer behind the Valencia juggernaut seemed an enigma.
He gave little away about himself or his feelings, his face inscrutably tough, his public statements terse and his mood apparently unaltered whether he was talking about triumph or setback.
His tactics did not charm purists, either. Cuper’s Valencia were ruthless on the counterattack, fast and intense. They blitzed some very talented opponents. But they lost 3-0 to Real Madrid in the first of their European Cup finals and, in heart-breaking fashion, lost on penalties to Bayern Munich 12 months later.
Two years after that, in the same competition, Cuper’s Inter exited at the semi-final stage on away goals against AC Milan.
The past decade has been spent further from the elite, though it has still been busy for Cuper. He helped save Mallorca from relegation in 2004/05. He could not repeat the trick when Parma hired him for a short-term rescue job in 2008.
There have been brief stints at Real Betis and Racing Santander, an unfulfilling 16 months as manager of Georgia’s national side and, most recently, a Turkish adventure, with Orduspor. There were also some rewarding times in Greece, coaching Aris Thessaloniki.
They reached a cup final under his watch. The outcome? Silver, again.
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From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Info
What: 11th edition of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship
When: December 27-29, 2018
Confirmed: men: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Kevin Anderson, Dominic Thiem, Hyeon Chung, Karen Khachanov; women: Venus Williams
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae, Virgin megastores or call 800 86 823
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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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.”
The%20specs
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The%20specs
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs: 2019 Subaru Forester
Price, base: Dh105,900 (Premium); Dh115,900 (Sport)
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 182hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 239Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.1L / 100km (estimated)
Fight card
- Aliu Bamidele Lasisi (Nigeria) beat Artid Vamrungauea (Thailand) POINTS
- Julaidah Abdulfatah (Saudi Arabia) beat Martin Kabrhel (Czech Rep) POINTS
- Kem Ljungquist (Denmark) beat Mourad Omar (Egypt) TKO
- Michael Lawal (UK) beat Tamas Kozma (Hungary) KO
- Zuhayr Al Qahtani (Saudi Arabia) beat Mohammed Mahmoud (UK) POINTS
- Darren Surtees (UK) beat Kane Baker (UK) KO
- Chris Eubank Jr (UK) beat JJ McDonagh (Ireland) TKO
- Callum Smith (UK) beat George Groves (UK) KO
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
