MANCHESTER // David Moyes, the Manchester United manager, lavished praise on Wayne Rooney after the striker inspired his side to a 4-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in their opening Uefa Champions League game.
The England striker scored twice and set up a late goal for Antonio Valencia to give the Premier League champions a strong start in Group A and further confirm his commitment to the United cause.
Moyes spent his first close season at Old Trafford fighting to keep Rooney at the club amid interest from Chelsea, and with three goals in two games, the 27 year old has now reached the milestone of 200 goals for United.
He requires 50 further goals to surpass Bobby Charlton as United’s all-time leading scorer and Moyes says the prospect of a place in the club’s history books helped persuade the former Everton player to stay put.
“It was something that we made him aware of,” Moyes told reporters after Tuesday’s game at Old Trafford.
“More importantly, I wanted to get him back in really good condition and mentally correct when he was ready to play.
“I think you see him. He’s moving as well as he has done, he’s in a good place in himself at the moment, and obviously any centre-forward who’s scoring goals feels good about himself.”
Moyes added: “If you want to win the Champions League, you need to have several world-class players and Wayne would certainly come into that category.”
Rooney is only the fourth player to have reached a double-century of United goals, after Charlton (249), Denis Law (237) and Jack Rowley (211).
“I remember coming in and saying he’s got a real chance to be one of the all-time leading goal-scorers at this club,” Moyes added.
“If he keeps playing like he did tonight, he’ll get there. He was very, very good.”
Moyes also reserved praise for Marouane Fellaini, who has followed him to United from Everton and who produced an assured performance on his full debut before going off in the second half.
“I thought he played well tonight,” Moyes said.
“He settled in well. He started to get a little bit of cramp mid-way through the second half so I thought I wouldn’t take any chances with him. But he did a good job.”
After Rooney put United ahead with a 22nd-minute volley, Simon Rolfes equalised with a deflected shot nine minutes into the second half.
However, an acrobatic Robin van Persie volley restored United’s lead five minutes later and further goals from Rooney and Valencia made it 4-1, before Omer Toprak claimed a consolation with two minutes to play.
Sami Hyypia, the Leverkusen coach and former Liverpool centre-back, admitted that his side had struggled to get to grips with the effervescent Rooney.
“He’s done it for years already and I think he still has a few years left,” said Hyypia, who came up against Rooney on a number of occasions during his 10-year Anfield career.
“To score 200 goals is a good achievement. It’s a few more than I scored in my career.
“He’s still scoring goals and I think he’ll score goals for a few years more. It looks so easy, how he’s playing.”
United’s opening goal was contentious, with Valencia appearing to stray into an offside position as Rooney dispatched his shot, but Hyypia refused to criticise Slovenian referee Damir Skomina.
“The first goal is always important in football, but I haven’t seen it on TV so I can’t comment too much,” he said.
“I heard it might have been offside, but those are things you can’t control and after the game, there’s no use talking about them.
“We need to analyse what we could have done better tonight and try to work on them on the training pitch and do those things better next time.”
sports@thenational.ae
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The biog
First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
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.”
Company%C2%A0profile
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Afro%20salons
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Our legal advisor
Rasmi Ragy is a senior counsel at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Prosecutor in Egypt with more than 40 years experience across the GCC.
Education: Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1978.
Winners
Ballon d’Or (Men’s)
Ousmane Dembélé (Paris Saint-Germain / France)
Ballon d’Or Féminin (Women’s)
Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona / Spain)
Kopa Trophy (Best player under 21 – Men’s)
Lamine Yamal (Barcelona / Spain)
Best Young Women’s Player
Vicky López (Barcelona / Spain)
Yashin Trophy (Best Goalkeeper – Men’s)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City / Italy)
Best Women’s Goalkeeper
Hannah Hampton (England / Aston Villa and Chelsea)
Men’s Coach of the Year
Luis Enrique (Paris Saint-Germain)
Women’s Coach of the Year
Sarina Wiegman (England)
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
Hotel Silence
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
Pushkin Press
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
THURSDAY'S FIXTURES
4pm Maratha Arabians v Northern Warriors
6.15pm Deccan Gladiators v Pune Devils
8.30pm Delhi Bulls v Bangla Tigers
