Emirates NBD welcomes Sven-Göran Eriksson and Habib Al Fardan at Jumeirah branch

Press release

Published June 2nd, 2013 - 12:12 GMT

Al Bawaba

Customers at the Jumeirah branch of Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the region, had an exciting time recently, when they came face to face with Swedish football veteran, Sven-Göran Eriksson and rising UAE professional footballer, Habib Al Fardan at the bank premises. The Swedish celebrity football manager and professional Emirati midfielder interacted with more than 300 multi-national customers, signing autographs and posing for photographs with fans who visited the branch.

The move comes in line with Emirates NBD’s ongoing commitment to support community-focused sporting initiatives and offer customers opportunities to associate with their favourite sports stars.

“Emirates NBD has a long-standing partnership with Al Nasr Sports Club, the longest established football club in the country, which enables us to organize such networking activities,” said Saif Al Mansoori, Deputy Head – Group Marketing and Branding, Emirates NBD. “This initiative received positive feedback from customers across various nationalities, and fans queued up well ahead of the scheduled time to avail the opportunity to engage with their favorite football player and well known football personality. We look forward to organizing more such networking activities in other locations.”

Fans were given the chance to get autographs of Al Fardan and Eriksson on Al Nasr t-shirts, cups and footballs, as well as collect instantaneous printouts of their photographs with the sports celebrities.

“We are pleased to work with Emirates NBD, who is one of our strategic partners and continues to provide support at various levels,” said Ahmed Khoory, Vice Chairman of Al Nasr Club and Al Nasr Football Company. “We look forward to another successful year at Al Nasr, with veterans like Eriksson and rising UAE football star Al Fardan.”

Having managed national teams and clubs in many countries worldwide, Eriksson recently joined Al Nasr Sports Club, as its Technical Advisor. He won 17 major trophies as a manager, with a variety of league clubs in Sweden, Portugal and Italy, before managing the national teams of England, Mexico and Côte d'Ivoire, in addition to two clubs in England.

An Emirati professional footballer who plays midfielder for the UAE National team and the Al Nasr Sports Club team, 22-year old Habib Al Fardan also competed at the Summer Olympics last year.

Background Information

Emirates NBD

Emirates NBD, the leading banking group in the region, was formed on 19 June 1963, when H.H. Late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum signed the Charter of Incorporation of the National Bank of Dubai (NBD) which became the first National Bank established in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). With the blessings of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, NBD merged with Emirates Bank International (EBI) on 06 March 2007, to form Emirates NBD, the largest banking group in the region by assets. On 16 October 2007, the shares of Emirates NBD were officially listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). The merger between EBI and NBD to create Emirates NBD, became a regional consolidation blueprint for the banking and finance sector as it combined the second and fourth largest banks in the UAE to form a banking champion capable of delivering enhanced value across corporate, retail, private, Islamic and investment banking throughout the region.