Wesley Sneijder held a surprise up his sleeve late on Saturday night. It was not so much the goal, scored three minutes into stoppage time that returned the Italian champions, Inter Milan, to the summit of Serie A, but the misty-eyed comments he uttered afterwards. Sneijder is generally known neither for his over-emotional nature, nor as a headline-seeker. But once he had dedicated the match-winner against Udinese to his partner, Yolanthe, headlines were guaranteed.
"How romantic," thought Gazzetta dello Sport of the understated Sneijder's desire to make public how much he appreciated the Dutch model, Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen, who shares his private life. Evidently, Inter's goalscorer was feeling a flush of adrenalin. He hinted at how hard the summer had been for him, rejected by a Real Madrid who two years earlier had paid big money for his signature, for whom he had performed well, and who in August sought to push him out of the club to make way for Spain's new Galacticos. Inter had proved a far happier home, he said, and he was pleased to be there.
Jose Mourinho was equally happy, and, being Mourinho, made his own show of emotional release at the moment Sneijder turned a frustrating 1-1 score line against Udinese into a 2-1 win. On the touchline, the Inter head coach danced, pumping his arms and stuck out his tongue as if to taste the relief around the San Siro. Inter had had a bad week leading up to the weekend's triumph. Elsewhere, their luck turned too, with neither Sampdoria, who drew with Parma, nor Juventus, who lost their unbeaten record at Palermo, capable of removing the title-holders from top spot.
Sneijder gives Inter something unique, said Mourinho after the match: inventiveness between the lines of midfield and attack. He is certainly a better footballer than Madrid's posture towards him suggested. Nor will the club who sold him be that surprised to see him make an early impact in Serie A. Two years ago, he marked his La Liga debut with the winning goal in a Madrid derby, and accumulated a high strike-rate with his direct free-kicks.
Sneijder is 25, and might have achieved more had he not had frustrating periods of injury, notably last season. Established in the Holland team that qualified in style for the 2010 World Cup finals, he is two-footed, keen to shoot from all distances, and a subtle deliverer of a dead ball. He is also apparently fitting into the role of superstar a bit more readily than he used to. Yolanthe is a pin-up in the Netherlands.
Might they become the new Posh and Becks? one Italian chat show host wondered. Not if the original Posh and Becks have anything to do with it.
As ever with the ultimate football superstar, there was something studied in the timing of Beckham's announcement on Sunday that he was "close to finalising" the deal that would see him going back to AC Milan as of January, once his commitments to US Major League Soccer were completed. Sneijder will have noted Beckham's declarations in particular. When Sneijder joined Real, he succeeded Beckham there, wore Beckham's former No 23 jersey and took over as a principal taker of free-kicks. Now they will be direct rivals in Milan.
The veteran Beckham "had such a great time with them that I always wanted to come back," he said.
As he spoke, Milan themselves were about to make heavy weather of gaining a point at Atalanta, achieved only thanks to Ronaldinho's late goal. Much more of this from nervous, mid-table Milan and Beckham will be hailed as a saviour come the new year. He will enjoy that.
ihawkey@thenational.ae
The Uefa Awards winners
Uefa Men's Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Uefa Women's Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
Best players of the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League
Goalkeeper: Alisson (Liverpool)
Defender: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Midfielder: Frenkie de Jong (Ajax)
Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Uefa President's Award: Eric Cantona
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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match info
Southampton 2 (Ings 32' & pen 89') Tottenham Hotspur 5 (Son 45', 47', 64', & 73', Kane 82')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
SPECS
%3Cp%3EEngine%3A%20Supercharged%203.5-litre%20V6%0D%3Cbr%3EPower%3A%20400hp%0D%3Cbr%3ETorque%3A%20430Nm%0D%3Cbr%3EOn%20sale%3A%20Now%0D%3Cbr%3EPrice%3A%20From%20Dh450%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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The biog
Favourite car: Ferrari
Likes the colour: Black
Best movie: Avatar
Academic qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in media production from the Higher Colleges of Technology and diploma in production from the New York Film Academy
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Toronto
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Release Date: April 10
ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers Henderson, Johnstone, Pickford, Ramsdale
Defenders Alexander-Arnold, Chilwell, Coady, Godfrey, James, Maguire, Mings, Shaw, Stones, Trippier, Walker, White
Midfielders Bellingham, Henderson, Lingard, Mount, Phillips, Rice, Ward-Prowse
Forwards Calvert-Lewin, Foden, Grealish, Greenwood, Kane, Rashford, Saka, Sancho, Sterling, Watkins
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: ten-speed
Power: 420bhp
Torque: 624Nm
Price: Dh325,125
On sale: Now
