Majed Naser has done it again. No, he has not slapped, smacked, socked or thrown a rock at anyone. The Al Ahli goalkeeper has been on his best behaviour in recent times, but he has still managed to put himself out of the game for another extended period.
Banned for six months last year for his on-field misdemeanours and off-loaded by his employers Al Wasl last September, Naser had put all those controversies behind to make an impressive return in January with his new club. The 29-year-old Emirati also had forced his way back into Mahdi Ali’s national team, but now he is out for six months, again, or even more, after injuring his Achilles in the opening league game of the season.
The culprit? His unbridled enthusiasm. Having waited 93 minutes for Ahli's first goal, in the match against Dubai, Naser let himself, go after Ahmed Khalil's match-winner, celebrating as he usually does – with a few backflips.
This time, it was not a happy landing.
Naser will be leaving for the Portuguese city of Porto in the coming days for surgery and while he recuperates, the showman might want to reflect on this latest episode in his soap-operatic career. He has never been destiny’s favourite child and his celebrations were tempting fate.
Such acrobatic celebrations, while great to watch, are inherently dangerous and often find a place in “fails” compilations. The warning come not in fine print, but bold. Two Turkish doctors, Bulent Zerena and Haluk H Oztekin, had conducted a research on the subject in the late 1990s with the aim of “preventing score-celebration injuries”.
“Exaggerated celebrations after making a goal, such as sliding, piling up, and tackling a teammate when racing away, can result in serious injury,” they wrote in their conclusions. “In addition to general measures for preventing soccer injuries, coaches and team physicians should teach self-control and behaviour modification to minimise the risk of such injuries.
“More restrictive rules, which penalise such behaviour, may assist in the prevention of score-celebration injuries.”
We do not know if Cosmin Olaroiu, or Quique Sanchez Flores before him, ever advised Naser against his high-risk celebrations, but if Harry Redknapp were in the Ahli dugout, the goalkeeper might have earned a severe rebuke on the first attempt.
Redknapp knows the danger of such celebrations.
He was the Portsmouth manager in 2006 when his striker Lomana LuaLua injured his ankle, while celebrating a goal against Arsenal, with a trademark somersault.
In 2007, Sir Alex Ferguson had ordered Nani to stop his back-flipping celebrations after the Portuguese winger landed painfully following a flip as he celebrated a goal on his Manchester United debut in a friendly against Shenzhen FC.
Ferguson, of course, had good reasons for it. During his 26 years at Man United, he had watched many of the Premier League’s top stars suffering injuries as they went overboard with their celebrations.
In 1997, Celestine Babayaro broke his leg as he celebrated a goal with a somersault during a pre-season game and his Chelsea debut was delayed for a few months. That same year, Patrick Vieira was put out of action for five weeks after injuring himself in an extravagant slide on his knees as he celebrated a goal against Ferguson’s team.
There are plenty of other such tales. In 2008, the Argentine striker Fabian Espindola celebrated a goal that wasn’t with a back flip and sprained his ankle.
“I’m embarrassed,” Espindola said later. “I’m never going to do that again. I’ve done it a million times. If I would have known, I never would have done it.”
Hopefully, Naser comes back with a similar resolve. He is too valuable a player to spend six months on the sidelines.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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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.”
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
Neil Thomson – THE BIO
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