Argentina fans shown with a Messi scarf prior to Argentina's match against Iran on Saturday at the 2014 World Cup in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Ronald Martinez / Getty Images / June 21, 2014
Argentina fans shown with a Messi scarf prior to Argentina's match against Iran on Saturday at the 2014 World Cup in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Ronald Martinez / Getty Images / June 21, 2014

Sport

How does it feel to have Messi in your house, Argentines ask Brazil

Andy Mitten reports on the scene in Belo Horizonte, where Brazillians backed Iran Argentines chanted, ' Brazil, tell me how it feels to have daddy in your house?'

Andy Mitten

“Brazil. Tell me how it feels to have daddy in your house?”

For 20 minutes after Lionel Messi had scored a brilliant, match-winning, injury-time goal, the Argentine masses refused to leave Belo Horizonte’s Mineiro Stadium.

The 2,000 Iranians drifted home, the 10,000 Brazilians too, but the 38,000 in blue and white on all four sides of the stadium stood and sang the same song over and again. It has become their anthem and was so loud you could not hear the public address system.

The Argentines danced as they sang, they held up their flags from their clubs – Boca Juniors, River Plate, Estudiantes, Newell’s Old Boys, Independiente – flags that Fifa do not allow to be displayed during matches.

Brazil aside, Argentina are the best-supported team at the World Cup. Geographic proximity helps for the first World Cup in South America since Argentina 1978. It makes the tournament affordable to anyone with enough money to share a long car journey or take an overnight bus trip.

Argentines in their team shirts and a backpack have been a frequent sight on the Brazilian bus network. They have considerable confidence in their own team to win the competition.

Argentines have never been short of self-assurance and, in their eyes, sophistication. Ask any of their neighbours and they will call it arrogance. They claim that Argentines love themselves more than anyone else, that they cannot be without a mirror.

With the greatest player in football and the pope from their country, it adds to their self-confidence and the economic problems that have long beset their nation are pushed aside for big events.

Long a regional superpower, they consider Brazil to be the poor son. Yet Brazil is now the undisputed economic Latin powerhouse. In football, the arguments between the neighbours will never cease.

Faced with taunting songs like the “Daddy” one, and impressed by Iran’s stoic defending, the neutral Brazilians went from singing their own songs to cheering for underdogs Iran.

By half time, they were starting chants of “Ole, Ole, Ole; Iran, Iran”. The Iranians were happy to join in and as the game went on, so the doubts arose among even the most cocksure Argentinians.

Iran may have made only 114 passes in the whole match, the lowest amount for 50 years in a World Cup, but after 90 minutes they were holding the best attack in football to a goalless draw.

Argentina’s fans were noticeably quieter by then, the critics ready to assault coach Alejandro Sabella once again.

Until Messi did what Messi does.

He changed the game – and won it – with a strike befitting his status as arguably the world’s greatest player. The watching Maradona applauded him as the one genuine successor to his crown. Iran’s players fell to the floor in anguish.

“That hurt,” said substitute Steven Beitashour. “That really hurt – and I was only on the bench. But what can you do about Messi?”

Iran leave the game with a credit they were not given before the competition started. They did not fade as expected and created better chances in the second half than the first.

Their assistant coach, Dan Gaspar, spoke with pride that, in his eyes, the man of the match was Argentina’s goalkeeper Sergio Romero.

“We knew that it would be a difficult, tense match,” Romero said. “Thank God I could get my hand on the ball” to make a crucial save from Ashkan Dejagah’s header in the second half, “and it didn’t go in. Messi then rubbed his magic lamp and we won.”

So Argentina started to sing, not cry.

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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.”