\n<\/p>\n
It is known as the sport of the sheikhs, with thousands of fans packing desert tracks to watch robot jockeys compete for huge prizes. Now professional camel racing has a new high-profile investor: Paul Pogba.<\/p>\n
The Monaco midfielder said he had become a shareholder in the Saudi Arabia-based Al Haboob, the world\u2019s first professional camel racing team competing across the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf, because he wanted to \u201celevate the sport on to a global stage\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been someone who wants to try new things and do things differently \u2013 whether it\u2019s how I play, how I express myself, or how I approach life off the pitch,\u201d the former Manchester United player said. \u201cThat mindset has followed me into my business world too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sport involves significant investment, with top camels selling for millions of pounds and races offering large prizes. Last year the prize pool for the AlUla Camel Cup, the most lucrative competition in the sport, was $6.4m (\u00a34.81m) across 16 races.<\/p>\n
Pogba, who became the world\u2019s most expensive player when he joined Manchester United from Juventus in 2016 for \u00a389m, has set his sights on owning the world\u2019s most expensive camel.<\/p>\n
\u201cOwning the world\u2019s most expensive camel one day would be a beautiful full-circle moment \u2013 something fun, something meaningful and something that excites me,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cMaybe one day we make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Haboob, founded by the entrepreneurs Omar Almaeena and Safwan Modir, is the first modern camel racing team to compete internationally. Modir said the team\u2019s aspirations go far beyond sport.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Paul Pogba said he had \u2018spent time doing research in my spare time trying to understand the techniques and strategies\u2019 of camel racing.<\/span> Photograph: Mohammed Elsayed<\/p>\n \u201cAt Al Haboob, we do not merely represent a racing team \u2013 we represent the ambition of a nation, the belief of a people, and a genuine determination for Saudis to be No 1 across every field of life, from sport and business to culture and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n In the past, camel racing has been criticised for low standards of animal welfare and for its use of child jockeys. However the sport now uses robot jockeys, equipped with GPS tracking, and Modir has said Al Haboob\u2019s camels are trained and cared for to world-class standards.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cOur camels are prepared with the same care and discipline you would expect from elite athletes,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery aspect of their training, nutrition, and wellbeing is carefully managed to monitor their safety and optimise their overall performance. With Paul joining us, we are taking this movement to a global stage and shaping the future of camel racing.\u201d<\/p>\n Pogba, who returned to football last month after an 18-month ban for taking a supplement containing a banned substance, insisted his investment had come about because he was a big fan of the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve watched my fair share of races on YouTube and spent time doing research in my spare time trying to understand the techniques and strategies,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd what stood out to me is how much dedication it takes from everyone involved. At the end of the day, sport is sport. It demands heart, sacrifice and teamwork.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is known as the sport of the sheikhs, with thousands of fans packing desert tracks to watch robot jockeys compete for huge prizes. Now professional camel racing has a new high-profile investor: Paul Pogba. The Monaco midfielder said he had become a shareholder in the Saudi Arabia-based Al Haboob, the world\u2019s first professional camel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[4563,15111,20453,10940,18173,973,19815,6834,11191,344,1905],"class_list":{"0":"post-36718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-aims","9":"tag-arabian","10":"tag-camel","11":"tag-elevate","12":"tag-invests","13":"tag-paul","14":"tag-pogba","15":"tag-racing","16":"tag-saudi","17":"tag-sport","18":"tag-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}