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Hatem Ben Arfa

Personal information
Full name	Hatem Ben Arfa
Date of birth	March 7, 1987 (1987-03-07) (age 23)
Place of birth	Clamart, France
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]
Playing position	Left winger
Club information
Current club	Marseille
Number	10
Youth career
1994–1996	ASV Châtenay-Malabry
1996–1998	SM Montrouge
1998–1999	AC Boulogne-Billancourt
1999–2002	INF Clairefontaine
2002–2004	Lyon
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2004–2008	Lyon	64	(7)
2008–	Marseille	53	(7)
National team‡
2002–2003	France U16	10	(7)
2003–2004	France U17	22	(16)
2004–2005	France U18	4	(0)
2005–2006	France U19	6	(1)
2008	France U21	1	(0)
2007–	France	7	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14 June 2009. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 22 November 2009

Hatem Ben Arfa (Arabic: حاتم بن عرفة‎) (born on 7 March 1987 in Clamart) is a French footballer of Tunisian descent who plays for Ligue 1 club Olympique de Marseille. A graduate of the famous Clairefontaine academy, Ben Arfa formerly played for Olympique Lyonnais with whom he won four Ligue 1 titles. Early in his career at Lyon, he played as a centre forward, but moved into the winger role during the 2007–08 season.

Career

Early career

Ben Arfa was born to Kamel Ben Arfa, a former Tunisian international, and a French mother and began his career at ASV Châtenay-Malabry in southwestern Paris.^[2] After two years at the club, he moved a few miles north to Stade Municipal Montrouge. In 1998, Ben Arfa moved to prestigious sporting club AC Boulogne-Billancourt and later had a stint at FC Versailles before being selected to attend the Clairefontaine academy. While at Clairefontaine, Ben Arfa was the only underage player in his class and was a part of “A la Clairefontaine”, a documentary series by Bruno Sevaistre which chronicled the lives of the France's top young footballers during their time at the academy.^[3] One intriguing moment during the series came when Ben Arfa got into an argument with Abou Diaby, who now plays for English club Arsenal.^[4]

Olympique Lyonnais

At 15 and already being labeled a prodigy, Ben Arfa joined Olympique Lyonnais who had just won their first ever Ligue 1 championship. In August 2004, after spending two years in the youth divisions of the Lyon academy, he signed his first professional contract on a three-year deal, despite late interest from English club Chelsea and Dutch outfit Ajax.^[5] He was, along with fellow prodigy Karim Benzema, promoted to the senior squad and assigned the number 34 shirt.

Ben Arfa made his professional debut on the opening match day of the 2004–05 season against Nice coming on as a substitute in the 68^th minute. Lyon won the match 1–0 with a goal from Giovane Elber a few minutes after Ben Arfa came on.^[6] After making a few substitute appearances, he made his first start on 11 September 2004 in a 2–1 victory over Rennes, playing 56 minutes.^[7] He scored his first professional goal two months later on 10 November in a Coupe de la Ligue match against Lille, converting from the penalty spot in extra time to give Lyon a 2–1 lead, though Lille then scored two late goals, beating Lyon 2–3.^[8] He also made his UEFA Champions League debut in a group stage match against Manchester United, coming on as a substitute for Sidney Govou.

In the following season, Ben Arfa switched to the first team number 18 shirt, but his substitute to start ratio was still high with 7 out of 12 appearances as a substitute. He also made his first UEFA Champions League start in a 2–1 victory over Norwegian club Rosenborg, providing the assist on the game winning goal scored by the Brazilian Fred in the last minutes of the match.^[9] He scored his first league goal during the 2006–07 season against Sedan just before half-time, which proved to be the winner as Lyon won the match 1–0.^[10]

2007–08 season

With wingers Florent Malouda and Sylvain Wiltord having left the club, incoming manager Alain Perrin preferred the more modern 4-3-3 formation and opted to move Ben Arfa to the left-wing role. Ben Arfa quickly adapted to the position and scored his first goal in a 5–1 demolition of Metz on 15 September, though his performance was overshadowed by a Karim Benzema hat trick.^[11] Arguably his best performances in a Lyon shirt came in a period of 12 days, during which he played a league match on 27 October against Paris Saint-Germain and a Champions League game against German club VfB Stuttgart on 7 November. He scored a brace in each match with both results being in favor of Lyon.

Despite rumors of a rift between himself and Karim Benzema^[12], Ben Arfa signed a contract extension with Lyon in March 2008 until 2010.^[13] However, his career at Lyon ran into trouble after he got into a training scuffle with veteran Sébastien Squillaci.^[14]

Olympique Marseille

Despite reported interest from English clubs Everton, Manchester United, Arsenal^[15], and Spanish club Real Madrid^[16], rumors of a move to rivals Olympique de Marseille began to surface. On 28 June 2008, Lyon confirmed that a proposed transfer to Marseille had been canceled for the time being.^[17] However, Ben Arfa confirmed to the local La Provence newspaper on 29 June that he had signed for the southern coast club and would not return to Lyon for pre-season training the following day.^[18] La Provence later reported that Ben Arfa had in fact missed training in Lyon on 30 June, confirming his intentions.^[19]

Ben Arfa officially joined Marseille on 1 July 2008 for €11 million with future incentives to be included later, after an agreement was reached between Marseille and Lyon in a meeting organized by the LFP.^[20] As a result of the disagreement over the transfer, in December 2008, Ben Arfa told the French paper Le Progrès that his former team, Olympique Lyonnais, lacked class and was not a great team.^[21] Ben Arfa was presented to the media and had his first training session with the club the same day.^[22] He was given the number 20 shirt. On 16 July, Ben Arfa was involved in another training session scuffle, this time with stiker and France international Djibril Cissé.^[23] Cissé later joined English club Sunderland on loan.

Ben Arfa made his league debut on the opening day of the season in a thrilling 4–4 draw with Rennes. He scored his first goal for the Marseilles in that match.^[24] He continued in great form scoring 6 times in his first 11 matches. However, his reputation for controversy continued to haunt him when he was involved in another dispute, this time with the Cameroon international Modeste M'Bami following the club's UEFA Champions League match with Liverpool. The two had to be separated by Ronald Zubar.^[25] Controversy arose again following Marseille embarrassing 2–4 loss to Le Classique rivals Paris-Saint Germain. He drew the ire of manager Eric Gerets after his refusal to leave the bench to warm up. Ben Arfa later said he was injured much to the chagrin of Gerets, but later apologized for the incident to the media and Gerets himself.^[26] Upon his return to the squad, Ben Arfa responded by scoring a goal and providing the assists on both the other goals in a 3–1 victory over Saint-Étienne.^[27]

2009–10 season

Ben Arfa switched to the number 10 shirt for the 2009–10 season and made his debut on the opening match day of the season in a 2–0 away victory over Grenoble appearing as a substitute in the 68^th minute. The following week, he earned his first start of the season against Lille and assisted the game-winning goal scored by Brandão. Controversy surfaced again, however, when on 8 October 2009 Ben Arfa was fined €10,000 by the club for missing a training session. Ben Arfa blamed the absence on airport delays as he was in Tunisia visiting family members during the international break.^[28] A month later, on 18 November, he got into a heated argument with manager Didier Deschamps during a training session,^[29] for which Ben Arfa later apologized.^[30] Under Deschampsin the first half of the season, Ben Arfa appeared in 15 of the club's 20 league matches and only played the full 90 minutes in two matches, a 1–2 defeat against Monaco and an 0–2 defeat to Auxerre.

Ben Arfa displays during the 2010 portion of the season saw the player earn praise from both Deschamps and sporting director José Anigo. On 10 January 2010, Ben Arfa scored his first goal of the season against amateur club Trélissac in the Coupe de France.^[31] A month later, he was instrumental in Marseille's 5–1 thrashing of Valenciennes assisting on the opening goal scored by Lucho González. Later that month, Ben Arfa scored a crucial away goal in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League tie against Danish club FC København. In the return leg in Marseille, Ben Arfa struck again scoring the opening goal in the 43^rd minute. Marseille won the match 3–1 and the tie 6–2 on aggregate.^[32]

International career

Ben Arfa has earned caps with all of France's youth teams. Ben Arfa scored 16 goals in 22 appearances for France U-17 side.^[33] In 2004, he was a part of the under-17 squad, composed of future stars Samir Nasri, Benzema, and Jérémy Menez, that won the 2004 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship, their first ever. Ben Arfa was a revelation, scoring against Northern Ireland, Turkey and Portugal. Ben Arfa also made one appearance with the under-21s in a 2009 UEFA Under-21 Championship qualification match against Romania.

Before representing France, Ben Arfa was eligible to represent the Tunisian national football team and was offered a place in the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany. He turned down this opportunity, preferring to continue his career with the French national team.^[34]

Ben Arfa was called up to the French international squad for the first time on 10 October 2007 by Raymond Domenech to replace the injured Louis Saha and played in the EURO 2008 qualifying matches against the Faroe Islands and Lithuania.^[35] This move stunned critics of Domenech as they expected in-form striker David Trezeguet to get the call up.^[36] Ben Arfa made his debut on 13 October when he came on for Franck Ribéry in the 64^th minute and scored the last goal in France's 6–0 victory over the Faroe Islands national football team. Ben Arfa was, however, omitted from Domenech's final 23-man Euro 2008 squad on May 28.

On 25 February 2010, Ben Arfa returned to the team, alongside teammate and debutant Benoît Cheyrou, after being called up by coach Raymond Domenech for France's friendly match with Spain on 3 March.

Career statistics

(Correct as of 23 February)

International Goals - France

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	13 October 2007	Tórsvøllur, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands	Faroe Islands	0 – 6	0 – 6	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying

Honours

Club

Lyon

• Ligue 1:
  • Winner (4): 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08
• Trophée Des Champions:
  • Winner (2): 2006, 2007
• Peace Cup:
  • Winner (1): 2007
• Coupe de France:
  • Winner (1): 2008

International

France

• UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship:
  • Winner (1): 2004

Individual

• Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year:
  • Winner (1): 2007–08

Notes

1. ^ Includes Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue, Trophée des Champions
2. ^ Includes UEFA Supercup

References

External links

• LFP Profile
• OM.net Profile