Ronaldo crowned world’s most marketable player

PARIS: Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo is the world s most marketable footballer according to a study released by an international sports market research company Wednesday. Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi ranked second in the study conducted by Repucom ahead of club teammate and surprise third placed entry Gerard Pique of Spain.

The data measured the perceptions of over 6 500 people in 13 countries including Britain the United States Brazil China and India which was reportedly claimed to represent the views of more than 1.5 billion people worldwide.

Ronaldo who helped Real Madrid clinch a 10th Champions League title on Saturday was also found to be the most well-known player on the planet with 83.9 per cent of people aware of who he was.

Ronaldo is an endorser’s dream. His value is as important to the teams he plays for as they are for the companies that endorse him, said Paul Smith, CEO of Repucom.

Global awareness of Ronaldo is what drives his commercial power and with over 82 million facebook likes and 26 million Twitter followers he is also one of the most liked in the business. (APP/AFP)

Noah named Defensive Player of the Year

CHICAGO: Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, the mainstay of a team that kept foes to a league-low 91.8 points a game, was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year on Monday.

The son of French tennis legend Yannick Noah and former Miss Sweden Cecilia Rodhe averaged 12.6 points, 11.3 rebounds, 1.5 blocked shots and 1.2 steals a game for the Bulls this season.

Noah, 29, became the first Bulls player to win the award since Michael Jordan in 1988. "This is very humbling to be in this situation right now," Noah said. "I never thought I would be in this positoion right now. I just kept working."

The Bulls are in the first round of the NBA playoffs, having lost their opener to the Washington Wizards, and Noah stressed he owes the honor to the work of his team-mates as well as himself.

When the Bulls lost star playmaker Derrick Rose to injury early in the season after he missed all of last season and later traded away British star Luol Deng, Chicago stressed defensive work and Noah set the tone for the team.

Noah said he owes much of his work ethic to his father and watching his determination on the tennis court.

"I watched the way my father worked as a tennis player and subconsciously it taught me work ethic," Noah said. "There are so many distractions out there. You just have to stay focused on your craft. You have to stay focused on your belief in yourself."

Noah received 555 of a possible 1,125 points, including 100 first-place votes from a media panel, to defeat runner-up Roy Hibbert of Indiana, who had 166 points and eight first-place votes. The Los Angeles Clippers´ DeAndre Jordan was third on 121 points with eight first-place votes. (AFP)

Noah named Defensive Player of the Year

CHICAGO: Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, the mainstay of a team that kept foes to a league-low 91.8 points a game, was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year on Monday.

The son of French tennis legend Yannick Noah and former Miss Sweden Cecilia Rodhe averaged 12.6 points, 11.3 rebounds, 1.5 blocked shots and 1.2 steals a game for the Bulls this season.

Noah, 29, became the first Bulls player to win the award since Michael Jordan in 1988. "This is very humbling to be in this situation right now," Noah said. "I never thought I would be in this positoion right now. I just kept working."

The Bulls are in the first round of the NBA playoffs, having lost their opener to the Washington Wizards, and Noah stressed he owes the honor to the work of his team-mates as well as himself.

When the Bulls lost star playmaker Derrick Rose to injury early in the season after he missed all of last season and later traded away British star Luol Deng, Chicago stressed defensive work and Noah set the tone for the team.

Noah said he owes much of his work ethic to his father and watching his determination on the tennis court.

"I watched the way my father worked as a tennis player and subconsciously it taught me work ethic," Noah said. "There are so many distractions out there. You just have to stay focused on your craft. You have to stay focused on your belief in yourself."

Noah received 555 of a possible 1,125 points, including 100 first-place votes from a media panel, to defeat runner-up Roy Hibbert of Indiana, who had 166 points and eight first-place votes. The Los Angeles Clippers´ DeAndre Jordan was third on 121 points with eight first-place votes. (AFP)

 

Ireland eyes new big player to boost banking sector

DUBLIN: Ireland would like a "significant" new bank with a big balance sheet to enter its lending market this year to drive competition in the diminished sector, finance minister Michael Noonan said on Saturday.

Ireland's banking crisis, which helped push the country into an European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout that it completed last year, led to the closure or merger of half of the country's domestic banks and the exit of a slew of foreign lenders.

It has also left the country with only three SME lenders of scale, state-owned Allied Irish Banks, Royal Bank of Scotland's Ulster Bank and Bank of Ireland, which counts the Irish state as a 14 percent shareholder. "We are talking about a bank with a big balance sheet.

A third significant player," Noonan told reporters at his Fine Gael party's annual conference after he said in a speech that he would like to see a third viable bank in the country.

"I'm exploring it. I know there are people interested. In the course of this year, it would be nice to get these things done before banking union," he said, referring to the European Union's plan for a more integrated banking system.

Noonan added that he absolutely wanted mortgage lender permanent tsb (ptsb), currently the third domestic-owned bank in the country behind Bank of Ireland and AIB, to remain part of the banking sector.

Noonan's comments come after Flip, a proposed European bank, kicked off formal fundraising to raise 100 million euros to allow them cash in on Ireland's newly-concentrated banking market and slowly recovering economy.

However Noonan said he was looking for a much bigger lender than Flip and ptsb to enter the market and that he was sending a signal out that there is a space to do so.

"They were talking about 100 million (euros), 100 million wouldn't capitalise a bank," Noonan said, referring to the Flip proposal. "The amount of money they were talking about was far too small."

"There's a general agreement to the principle that the two pillar banks, Bank or Ireland and AIB, are insufficient as players in the market to give the kind of competition that a growing economy might need."