BARCELONA // Soon after celebrating reaching the Champions League final with his Inter Milan players on Wednesday night, Jose Mourinho swaggered into the press conference deep in the bowels of the Camp Nou.
The atmosphere was not unlike it had been on the pitch: tense and passionate.
Mourinho's name was mud among the Catalan media. Part envy, part frustration, they were seething with injustice after seeing their "perfect" team get knocked out of the competition by Inter's "anti-football".
Seldom as objective as journalists should be, they had witnessed the side they write about weekly out-class and dominate Inter, yet fail to demolish their visitors in the way they had become accustomed.
Mourinho walked into the bear pit and took centre stage, quickly making it his theatre by commanding the attention of everyone present.
Sartorially perfect and melting the hearts of every female, he eye-balled anyone and everyone as he asserted control.
Other coaches in his position would have been defensive. They would have felt pressured to explain their aggressive and cynical tactics, time wasting and petulance.
The Inter Milan coach can speak Portuguese, English, Spanish and Italian fluently, but chose to answers questions only in the latter. And, like his players on the pitch, played to his strengths.
He quickly had everyone on the back foot when he described Wednesday night's victory as the greatest moment of his career, better than winning the Champions League with relative minnows Porto in 2004.
From the left-field, he then said that his compatriot and colleague Luis Figo was delighted with the result because it meant that he was no longer public enemy No 1 in Barcelona.
"Now that person is me," Mourinho said, vainglorious and proud of the honour - as if he had succeeding in what he'd set out to do.
The issue of his personal safety never seemed to cross his mind. The man they called 'Mou' even criticised Italian football and, by the end, he had exhausted the journalists' questions, batting each away with the nonchalance of cricketer Brian Lara in his prime.
Mourinho turned every slight into a positive. "How dare you criticise my tactics?" he asked one. "My defensive tactics were superb."
He also stated that he was proud of the manner in which his players had conducted themselves. And he had a point. It was only three weeks ago that the serious thinkers in the football world were putting Lionel Messi on a plinth alongside the finest players in the history of the game.
Yet in more than 180 minutes against Inter, the little Argentine was peripheral at best. Inter's motivated players denied Messi the space in which he thrives. He was forced deeper and away from the opponents' goal where he is most effective, but Inter's midfield played so deep that there was no space there for Messi either.
With one his main supply lines of Andres Iniesta absent in both games to injury, Messi was more reliant on the creative genius of Xavi, but he, too, cut a frustrated figure as he was denied the space he needs to influence matches.
Others will try to follow Mourinho's tactics to stunt Barca and Messi, but few have the personnel required, nor the motivation and focus instilled by their coach.
Barca's reign had to end sometime, but they will not fall apart and Pep Guardiola will learn.
Three hours after the final whistle, some of the 5,400 travelling Inter fans were still celebrating what Mourinho had called "the most beautiful defeat in my life".
"Jo-se Mourinho!" they sang on the grand thoroughfare of Diagonal which intersects Barcelona, absolutely certain in their minds who was responsible for them reaching their first European Cup final since 1972. He promised to make a difference when he arrived in Italy. He has done that allright.
sport@thenational.ae
A%20QUIET%20PLACE
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All you need to know about Formula E in Saudi Arabia
What The Saudia Ad Diriyah E-Prix
When Saturday
Where Diriyah in Saudi Arabia
What time Qualifying takes place from 11.50am UAE time through until the Super Pole session, which is due to end at 12.55pm. The race, which will last for 45 minutes, starts at 4.05pm.
Who is competing There are 22 drivers, from 11 teams, on the grid, with each vehicle run solely on electronic power.
Feeding the thousands for iftar
Six industrial scale vats of 500litres each are used to cook the kanji or broth
Each vat contains kanji or porridge to feed 1,000 people
The rice porridge is poured into a 500ml plastic box
350 plastic tubs are placed in one container trolley
Each aluminium container trolley weighing 300kg is unloaded by a small crane fitted on a truck
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
CONFIRMED%20LINE-UP
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Fight card
Preliminaries:
Nouredine Samir (UAE) v Sheroz Kholmirzav (UZB); Lucas Porst (SWE) v Ellis Barboza (GBR); Mouhmad Amine Alharar (MAR) v Mohammed Mardi (UAE); Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) v Spyro Besiri (GRE); Aslamjan Ortikov (UZB) v Joshua Ridgwell (GBR)
Main card:
Carlos Prates (BRA) v Dmitry Valent (BLR); Bobirjon Tagiev (UZB) v Valentin Thibaut (FRA); Arthur Meyer (FRA) v Hicham Moujtahid (BEL); Ines Es Salehy (BEL) v Myriame Djedidi (FRA); Craig Coakley (IRE) v Deniz Demirkapu (TUR); Artem Avanesov (ARM) v Badreddine Attif (MAR); Abdulvosid Buranov (RUS) v Akram Hamidi (FRA)
Title card:
Intercontinental Lightweight: Ilyass Habibali (UAE) v Angel Marquez (ESP)
Intercontinental Middleweight: Amine El Moatassime (UAE) v Francesco Iadanza (ITA)
Asian Featherweight: Zakaria El Jamari (UAE) v Phillip Delarmino (PHI)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: ten-speed
Power: 420bhp
Torque: 624Nm
Price: Dh325,125
On sale: Now
Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
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.”
