Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is 42 years old and has three wives.
He is the youngest king in the Arab world.
His father abdicated in 2013 and Tamin knew what to do with the inheritance.
Experts in the family saga of the Al Thani house, as the dynasty that governs that small but powerful geography is called, say that Tamin is responsible for the modernization of the Qatari State.
Until Tamin, Qatar was an atavistic nation and trapped in its religious dogmatism.
But after the arrival of the Emir, Qatar began to expand.
Qatar went out into the world.
He went out to buy a piece of the world.
The Emir, according to Forbes records, has a
personal fortune of $2 billion.
But his buying impulse does not come from there, but from the Qatari sovereign fund, the product of LNG (liquefied gas) sales to half the planet.
Since Doha trades its gas reserves with the world, Qatar is a serious thing in the paradise of the global powers.
In economic terms, since long before the World Cup, the Arabs have been consolidating
an unbridled expansion
that admits business in all forms.
Global business and heading south
At the end of the last century
, the symbols of the new country emerged, such as the Al-Jazeera chain and the airline Qatar Airways.
The foundations of the Qatar Investment Authority were laid, the sovereign wealth fund that expands its arms to all continents.
Today, the royal family has shares on the London Stock Exchange, in the Volkswagen and Porsche automobile companies, it has acquired Harrods stores, Tiffany jewelry stores, the Hollywood Miramax studio, and participates in companies such as British Airways, Barclays banks, and Credit Suisse, among others. many others.
It is estimated that in the United Kingdom alone, where the current emir and a large part of the royal family were formed, more than 50 billion dollars have been invested.
They own part of Paris Saint Germain and therefore Messi and Mbappé.
The immensity of Baguales.
Photo: Shutterstock
Tamin is a character of the moment.
Until the World Cup in Qatar, from the West it was not easy to differentiate one Emir from another.
But Messi, Argentina, the coronation happened.
That Sunday that Argentines will never forget, Tamin
first hugged his close friend, Mauricio Macri.
The video went viral.
Montiel nails the consummation penalty and Tamin runs to hug the former Argentine president and current head of the FiFa Foundation.
He hugs him, squeezes him, squeezes a Macri shocked by the victory.
Macri looks like a vegetable, delivered to the arms of a thin, tall and solemn man behind his investiture.
Then came the time to hand over the cup to the best in the world.
Before he put on the black cape that symbolizes the autonomy of the emirate.
The Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani
What is the relationship of the former Argentine tennis player Gastón Gaudio with Qatar?
He is a close friend of Al Thani.
"I work with people from Qatar, but nothing official. I am a personal friend of the Emir," acknowledged the "Cat" in 2016. Gaudio mediated for Qatar Airways as a sponsor of Boca's shirt.
As soon as the World Cup ended, the Emir and the athlete came on vacation to Punta del Este and Patagonia.
Gaudio is also a partner in the Baguales venture.
Photo: AFP
The relationship between the Emir of Qatar and former President Mauricio Macri exceeds the personal
They are friends and they showed signs of that bond as soon as Argentina was crowned world champion.
The video of the hug between Macri and Al Thani went around the world.
Last week, Macri received Al Thani in Villa La Angostura.
It was a discreet meeting, behind closed doors, to discuss the future of Qatar's investments in Argentina.
The Qataris operate in Vaca Muerta.
Photo: ROUTERS
The Emir and the king of football, Leonel Messi
The photo is historical.
The moment when Messi became world champion.
It coincided with the National Day of Qatar and for this reason, the Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, puts a black tunic on the Argentine idol.
The tunic symbolizes the national celebrations of that same day.
Photo: CLARÍN / FERNANDO DE LA ORDER
The Emir of Qatar has a declared fortune of 2 billion dollars
Long before the start of the World Cup there were rumors and accusations about the "buying" of the World Cup by the Qataris.
They pointed to an economic relationship between Gianni Infantino's FIFA and Qatar.
It is the first time that a World Cup changes dates and is played in December.
Requests from Qatar to make the possibility of holding the world championship in the emirate viable.
Photo: EFE
The Western Emir, in Punta del Este and Patagonia
Shortly after the World Cup, the Emir flew to Rio de Janeiro.
There she rented two state-of-the-art yachts and embarked for Uruguay, where she spent a few days with Gaudio.
They continued their journey to the port of La Plata.
A few days later, a Qatar Airways plane appeared at the Bariloche airport.
The Emir was staying at the Llao Llao hotel, together with his inseparable friend Gaudio.
Photo: TELAM
The Emir of Qatar at the Llao Llao hotel during his recent stay in Argentina
He paid $3,600 a night for the hotel's most exclusive suite, a 1,500-square-foot space.
From there he traveled to Villa La Angostura to meet his friend Mauricio Macri, within the limits of the Cumelén private neighborhood, where the former president owns his property.
Photo: llaollao.com
The Gaudio Factor
It was even said that Tamin "bought the World Cup".
But so many things are said... What is concrete, perhaps, is that Tamin arrived in Argentina long before he became a world reference.
He arrived hand in hand with a close friend, with whom he shares time and a growing anecdote.
Gastón "El Gato" Gaudio has become much more than his link to South America.
Years ago Gato himself confessed:
"I am a close friend of the Emir of Qatar, I do things with them, but nothing formal
. "
In 2016, Gaudio mediated so that the advertising of Qatar Airways, the emblematic flag line that the royal family also controls, would come as a sponsor of the Boca shirt.
Those were the times of the nights for a walk through San Telmo.
Like the one in which they closed United States Street.
She also wanted to eat lamb licks.
He had been told that the best in Buenos Aires ate in the Brigade and he made that grill they went.
They are colored data that operate as a membrane in front of what is truly transcendent:
Qatar's investments in natural resources
.
Dead Cow, without going any further.
The Qataris kept 30% of Exxon's operation in the field.
They are interested in shale oil as much as lithium.
Lithium is perhaps the coveted pearl for the not so distant future.
A future of electric cars, of electric means and without combustion.
Lithium is the new gold in provinces such as La Rioja, Catamarca and Jujuy.
But in the middle of last year, Río Negro confirmed the discovery of lithium under its soils.
They are agenda items in the army of lobbyists that goes after Tamin in each of his incursions dressed as luxury tourism.
Always Patagonia
But if there is a place where "the Qataris" have been talked about for a while,
that place is not Buenos Aires, but Bariloche.
The landing of the Emir in Patagonia must be dated to approximately 2017.
As often happens, the myth of a powerful presence is installed first and finally the veil of a real estate operation is lifted.
That happened in Baguales, 50 kilometers from Bariloche.
As the purchases are made in "border security" zones and due to the land law a foreigner cannot be the direct owner of land of these characteristics in the country, the purchases are made through complex, but legal, corporate formations. .
The incredible Baguales.
Photo: baguales-patagonia
To create the paradise of Los Baguales, where elite skiers with a lot of money can indulge in the royal pleasure of being alone in nowhere, the Emir and his partner Gaudio had to join forces with the Belga Burco group, which operates the Arelauquen gated community in Bariloche.
Abdulhadi Mana A Sh Al-Hajri, from Doha, Qatar, and tennis player Gastón Norberto Gaudio created Baguales Acquisitions SA
.
This is how they obtained approval to purchase a 4,500-hectare field.
Baguales is the name under which Burco had been commercially exploiting the
"Baguales allowance" for years,
a kind of high steppe at 1,700 meters above sea level that is loaded with snow for a good part of the year.
Caviar for skiers.
It is the same area of Cerro Carreras, which in the papers appears as the property of the Burco group and the Alto Foyel ranch.
Since the early 2000s, the Burco group has offered the exclusive heli-skiing service in the area now under the control of Gaudio and the Emir.
It is estimated that in total, the Emir owns, through a network of different companies,
a total of 28 thousand hectares.
Luxury in Baguales.
Photo: baguales-patagonia
Right there, the company put together a system of luxury refuges, which intrepid skiers can connect for ski days truly isolated from everything.
"They all want to work for Baguales. They are good payers, good employers. There is no one here in the South who does not want to be even a supplier," they say in the area.
Skiing with deer in the area of Loa Baguales, Río Negro
Moving
Last week Tamin and his entourage, including Gaudio, stayed at the Llao Llao hotel.
The Emir had come from a long pleasure trip, with stops first in Rio de Janeiro, then in Punta del Este and finally in La Plata.
They had made that tour in two sophisticated chartered boats in Niteroi, Brazil.
The Emir allowed himself to be photographed fully dressed as a Western tourist
at the Parador La Huella, in the Uruguayan seaside resort.
After getting off at the port of La Plata, an infrequent but perhaps ultra-discreet place to disembark, the next appearance of the contingent was in Bariloche.
There was the mysterious Qatar Airways Jumbo 747 one morning and the Llao Llao literally taken over by the Emir's entourage.
They paid $3,600 a night for the Emir's luxury suite.
A trinket.
They were going to visit Mauricio Macri, who rests 80 kilometers from there, the Cumelén gated community, of
Villa La Angostura.
It was one more meeting, of which very little was known.
But that gives the pattern of something true:
the Emir feels part of this part of the world and nothing indicates that his interests are static.
He doesn't plan to sit still.
Baguales, refuge of the Emir.
Photo: baguales-patagonia