When David Pizarro was a toddler, he was given one of those plastic racetracks on which children are supposed to race toy cars. Within a few days he had put it on his side, realising that the oval made for an excellent goal frame.
He was soon slamming the ball against his racetrack-come-goal. Racing? Cars? Not for him. For Pizarro there has always been just one thing: the ball.
It was the classic tale of the child who walked around with a football at his feet, spending every waking hour in close contact, foot on leather. That, no doubt, helped him develop the sensitive, feathery touch which would later define his career.
But his other quality is, most likely, innate: the ability to be in the right place at the right time, the effortless way in which he not only found teammates, but they find him. Or, as the legendary manager Nils Liedholm put it after watching a young Pizarro: "Some players run after the ball. With Pizarro, the ball runs after him."
Those skills soon got him noticed and, in the summer of 1999, at the age of 19, he made the big jump: leaving Santiago Wanderers in his homeland for Serie A with Udinese. The club from the far north-east of Italy had developed a reputation not just for spotting talent, but for securing it quickly, before the big sides could wade in. Pizarro arrived with much fanfare but was immediately confronted by a huge culture shock.
"I was a kid and adapting to the weather, particularly the fog in Udine during winter, was not easy," he recalls.
"I found the football difficult as well. It was faster and more physical than I was used to. In Chile you had time to think, you didn't have an opponent pressing you all the time, the game unfolded slowly. Serie A was a different world."
Udinese's coaching staff had a dilemma. They knew Pizarro was a special talent, but they also knew he was not producing.
Some feared he might never make the grade at all.
Halfway through his second season they just about threw in the towel, sending him back home, where he joined Universidad de Chile on loan. The idea was to get him some playing time and some confidence.
He was injured after a handful of appearances and returned to Udine for treatment.
It was during his rehab that the new coach, Roy Hodgson, felt he was worth one more shot. He was too good to send home.
This time, Pizarro made the grade with flying colours, immediately establishing himself as a regular.
"All of a sudden, everything seemed to click," he says.
"I was asked to play a deeper position and the team was built around me, which certainly helped. But it was as if my eyes were opened."
Hodgson and his successor, Luciano Spalletti, moved him from his classic No 10 position into a deep-lying playmaker role.
Like a point guard in basketball or a scrum-half in rugby, everything went through him.
Over the next four years Udinese soared, going so far as to qualify for the Champions League in 2004/05, his final season at the club.
By that point, he was a hot commodity and Inter Milan bought him for ?12 million (Dh62.2m), plus the rights to Goran Pandev, in a deal worth an estimated ?17m.
But the San Siro simply wasn't right for him. He lacked the physicality to thrive in Roberto Mancini's system and, at the end of the year, he moved on to Roma, where he was reunited with Spalletti. Serendipity followed. Spalletti built his revolutionary strikerless system around Pizarro.
The idea was simple: four defenders, a holding midfielder (Daniele De Rossi), Pizarro as orchestra director, and then four attacking midfielders, freely roaming the pitch.
At least, it looked that way to the opposition. In fact, the front four had fairly defined roles, it's just that their movement was constant.
And there was just one man on the pitch who fully understood it and had the technical gifts to deliver the all-important killer ball: Pizarro.
The little Chilean's playmaking abilities thrive to this day, even now that Claudio Ranieri has replaced Spalletti at the helm of Roma.
There is just one thing missing. Pizarro retired from the national team in 2006, blaming a lack of work ethic among some of his younger teammates.
Recently, he has said he regrets the decision. With South Africa 2010 around the corner, there is talk of a return.
"I'm not going to apologise for what I said at the time because I believed it was right," he says.
"The players qualified for this World Cup without me and I don't want to take anybody's place. If the manager feels I can contribute, I'd love to return. We've all grown up since then. It's the only thing missing from my life."
sports@thenational.ae
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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.
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
Pushkin Press
Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
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)
Opening day UAE Premiership fixtures, Friday, September 22:
- Dubai Sports City Eagles v Dubai Exiles
- Dubai Hurricanes v Abu Dhabi Saracens
- Jebel Ali Dragons v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
The 12 breakaway clubs
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
UAE Premiership
Results
Dubai Exiles 24-28 Jebel Ali Dragons
Abu Dhabi Harlequins 43-27 Dubai Hurricanes
Fixture
Friday, March 29, Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Jebel Ali Dragons, The Sevens, Dubai
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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.”
'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
German plea
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the German parliament that. Russia had erected a new wall across Europe.
"It's not a Berlin Wall -- it is a Wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage and this Wall is growing bigger with every bomb" dropped on Ukraine, Zelenskyy told MPs.
Mr Zelenskyy was applauded by MPs in the Bundestag as he addressed Chancellor Olaf Scholz directly.
"Dear Mr Scholz, tear down this Wall," he said, evoking US President Ronald Reagan's 1987 appeal to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
