BBPM LIFE
Matteo Fornasier
Chief Investment Officer
Investment Funds
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The starting 11: Which funds would win the 2026 World Cup?
Ten fund managers pick their best investment ideas in a World Cup-inspired fund selection.
15 JUN, 2026
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The World Cup has begun, and with every match comes a wave of emotions. Sport, much like investing, has a way of stirring strong reactions. But what if we brought these two worlds together and imagined a World Cup where the players were investment funds? Who would make it into the winning team?
When markets turn uncertain and I need to realign exposure toward a solution that earns its place in every regime, I turn to ANIMA Star High Potential Europe (IE0032464921). To my mind it is a true all-weather holding: a defensive, flexible, fully currency-hedged absolute-return strategy that actively flexes its net equity exposure as the cycle turns, and has delivered positive returns in twelve of its last fourteen calendar years — holding firm through 2022 and 2020, when European equities fell. Since inception in 2009 it has compounded at 5.2% a year with volatility of 5.5%: the steady, low-drawdown profile I want anchoring an allocation. With valuations stretched and geopolitical risk rising, that resilience is exactly why it earns my conviction now.
BSD INVESTING
Marlene Hassine
Associate Director General
| ISIN | YTD (15-06-2026) | 5-Year Return |
| LU3195985372 | +7.74% | - |
The Indépendance AM Europe Mid Active ETF (ISIN LU3195985372), launched on Euronext Paris, is a structural first in Europe: a dual share class giving direct listed access to the firm's Europe Mid strategy, unchanged in its investment process. Behind this vehicle stands William Higgons, whose proven ability to generate consistent alpha on small and mid-cap French equities across other funds in the range has established Indépendance AM as one of Europe's most respected active managers in this segment. Our active/passive selection model — built on earnings dispersion, uncertainty levels and analyst coverage — ranks this market among those where active management generates the most measurable edge today. In the current environment of extreme earnings trajectory dispersion among European industrials, this high-conviction active ETF captures precisely the inefficiencies a passive index will never exploit. A real-world test for a new distribution format.
HAWKSMOOR IM
Richard Philbin
Head of Investment Solutions
| ISIN | YTD (15-06-2026) | 5-Year Return |
| GB00BDR8GG51 | +13.42% | +13.32% |
BNY Mellon Global Infrastructure Income (GB00BDR8GG51) – “a defensive midfielder that can score …..” A fairly concentrated portfolio (top 10 are roughly 50%). Managed in the US by Brock Campbell, the UK registered £165m fund (there is a larger Irish OEIC available too) has delivered an excellent total performance since inception but also provides a very attractive quarterly yield at a relatively low AMC. This is a great portfolio diversifier. Although global in nature, the fund focuses on North America and Europe (80% of assets, with the US c45%) but is diversified across the “infrastructure” securities with Utilities, Energy, Industrials accounting for about 85%. Compared to its benchmark, the beta is comfortably below 1.
ING GLOBAL INVESTMENT CENTRE
Edoardo Cozzani
Investment Specialist
If I had to create a football team only made of funds, I would certainly include the quantitative European Equity fund of GSAM (GS Europe CORE Equity – LU3311322336) It would play the role of a disciplined midfielder, orchestrating every move with precision, data, and consistency. Modest tracking error, no style-biases, reliable in changing market conditions and still providing alpha. Surrounded by more opportunistic and high-conviction strategies, it would act as the engine of the team, quietly driving results while others might take the spotlight. But it would remain essential to winning over the long run.
L'ALLOCATAIRE
Ahmed Khelifa
CEO
The Amundi MSCI Eastern Europe Ex Russia UCITS ETF (ISIN LU1900066462) offers an aggressive, high-conviction way to play the German industrial cycle through Central and Eastern Europe. With a 0.50% TER, the fund provides targeted exposure to markets deeply embedded in German manufacturing, trade and supply chains. The investment case is clear: Germany's €500 billion infrastructure and climate programme, running over approximately twelve years, will support transport, energy grids, industrial modernisation and competitiveness. Because much of Eastern Europe sits within Germany's industrial hinterland, this ETF acts as a high-beta expression of the German economy — potentially amplifying the upside of a sustained German capex cycle. In the current environment, where earnings trajectory dispersion between direct beneficiaries and peripheral players is extreme, a targeted ETF on this geography captures the macro tailwind efficiently while keeping costs firmly in check.
REYL INTESA SANPAOLO
Geoffroy Perret
Senior Research and Product Manager
Our selection focused on the Securis Catastrophe Bond Fund (ISIN: Class A USD: IE00BYYCCY78), chosen for its balanced size, defensive positioning, and low correlation with traditional financial markets. This structure allows the fund to remain agile and selective, avoiding the growing number of emerging risks that have appeared in the insurance and reinsurance sectors in recent years—such as cyber risk, flooding, and wildfires. Instead, the fund mostly concentrates on major, well-modelled natural perils such as hurricanes and tornadoes.
The fund demonstrated its decorrelation with bond and equity indices during the first quarter of 2026, delivering a positive performance—particularly in March—at a time when bond markets were declining. It currently offers a gross yield of 7.6% in USD, 5.9% in EUR. We expect the fund to well behave in this difficult macro-economic environment.
iCAPITAL
Guillermo Santos
Partner
The energy and geopolitical environment drives nuclear energy as a key axis of the transition, in the face of a structural electrical demand in strong growth (electrification and AI). Renewables, although essential, are insufficient due to their intermittency and physical limitations. Nuclear offers continuous, low-carbon, high-efficiency generation, gaining political and social support. This sets up an investment supercycle with visibility of flows and opportunities throughout the value chain, including uranium and new technologies such as SMRs.
In this context, DNB Nuclear Fund (NO0013620773) offers global and diversified exposure to this structural megatrend. Its approach covers the entire nuclear value chain, from fuel and technology to services and operators, with a purely long-term perspective.
This is a balanced strategy especially suitable as a complement in portfolios oriented towards energy transition, infrastructure and megatrends, providing stability, visibility of flows and exposure to a structural supercycle through a diversified portfolio in five segments: uranium, reactor design, project management and maintenance, operators and distribution.
NORWEALTH CAPITAL
Alberto Loza
Senior Manager and Partner
PIMCO GIS Emerging Markets Opportunities (IE00BHHLPK96) is the solution for best ideas in strong and local currency emerging debt, flexible and defensive. Managed by PIMCO, which is the largest emerging debt investment platform globally, it is designed to mitigate the problem of deciding how much exposure to have in local/external debt. Historically it has generated returns higher than EM debt indices but, above all, with less volatility.
Launched in 2019, it has offered an alpha over the index of +3.38% annualized, which is a return of +6.29% annualized (in $; after commissions) with 1/3 less volatility. It is a fund that falls less than the index when there are drops (as it usually has a beta 0.4-0.5 vs index), but that participates in the rises. Currently it has a carry of 9.36% with 3.88 years of duration.
ACACIA INVESTMENT
Juan Pablo Calle
Investment Manager
ODDO Euro Credit Short Duration (LU0628638206) is an ideal piece for the conservative part of a portfolio, especially in the current environment, marked by uncertainty, expensive equities and fixed income without a clear direction in the face of rate movements. It is not a monetary or a traditional fixed income fund that bets on rate drops. Its proposal is simple: lend money to European companies with credit ratings below investment grade for short terms, thus limiting duration risk and making carry its main source of profitability. Its goal is to make few mistakes, take advantage of opportunities and concede few goals. In this way, it should finish the tournament very high, especially in a short competition where any mistake is very expensive.
CASSA LOMBARDA
Federica Nicolini
Senior Manager
Geographical diversification remains a pillar to reduce concentration risk: increasing exposure towards Europe and Emerging Countries is a strategic choice to balance the weight of the American market in global indices. For Europe, in addition to traditional passive instruments and smart beta ETFs, we note the interest towards quality active funds, such as Eleva Capital's strategies.
In addition to the long only Europe equity fund, the long/short equity strategies deserve attention: Eleva Absolute Return Dynamic, with higher equity exposure and superior risk/return profile.
This strategy combines bottom-up selection and top-down macro analysis, with flexibility in net exposure (historically between 30% and 75%). It stands out for transparency and timeliness in communication, and has proven to generate consistent performance with lower volatility compared to pure equity.
FRAME ASSET MANAGEMENT
Michele De Michelis
Chief Investment Officer
Jonathan Ruffer has always had (and benefited from) a vision hardly aligned with the street and this has allowed him to perform very well when everyone else suffers (see 2001/2003, 2007/2008, but also recently during Covid or 2022).
The story of Ruffer is always emblematic and even now that its founder has left the company, it enjoys an extraordinary heritage. A boutique with 25 billion in AUM, it is a success story especially in difficult times: its stated goal is to perform twice the interest paid by the bank, always with a limited downside. To achieve these results, it divides the portfolio into fear and greed: fear helps when things go wrong and greed when they go well.
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