FOCUS – The former Parisian finds his old team this Sunday (8:45 p.m.), at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, in his new Lille colors.
Hatem Ben Arfa, good pick for Lille? A pickaxe already. It was not yet won a few weeks ago. After a big blank year in Paris, a season in Rennes, a spell in Valladolid and a stint in Bordeaux, for a meager total of 71 matches (11 goals) in four years, between his shelving in Paris in April 2017, the he 34-year-old international tricolor lived the first part of the season in collective oblivion. In fact, many have imagined a career ending on the sly. Not “HBA”. “No, otherwise I would have let myself go… I’m clear with myself, I’m not cheating. Not for a second, I told myself that it was over“, insists the native of Clamart, who has spoken seriously since his departure from the Girondins.
Enough to be ready to answer the call from Olivier Létang – its president at Stade Rennes – and Losc. A rather ambitious project andcompetitiveto meet the expectations of Ben Arfa, who had no desire to go to exotic destinations at the twilight of his career. “I am a football lover. I didn’t want to go to championships oriented… outside of football. Mentally I’m fresh“, he says.
Fresh and available
Mentally fresh, physically available. To the point of surprising his comrades and Jocelyn Gourvennec, who did not hesitate to launch him in Brest (2-0 defeat), a few days after his signing and six months after his last match. “He came into play because he was good. We all had a very good feeling about him. For 15 days, he has again shown good athletic ability. He has good feelings. It is rather not bad on the athletic, physiological and support levels. He will be even better in the coming weeks by playing and training regularly. It’s a good surprise and good news to see him at a good level after a cut. It will be interesting for us“Swears the Lille coach.
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Same story on the side of Benjamin André, who had already rubbed shoulders with him in Rennes, “pleasantly surprised. I found it sharp. Even during the first training sessions, he had the canes. He still has his qualities of jerk, start, one against one… I found him very comfortable.“And to add:”When he entered Brest, he immediately tried to take things on his own. He can bring us that little trick that we lack in the last 25 meters to break the low blocks and try to find solutions. (…) I don’t know if he can last 90 minutes, but he has the rods to bring us something in a match.»
“Hatem is a particle accelerator, a profile that we did not have, different and complementary to our very good workforce. »
Olivier Letang
It remains to be seen what the former resident of Clairefontaine can bring to this Losc which is running well after a bumpy start to the season, punching its ticket for the knockout stages of the Champions League and returning within shooting range of European places at the Ligue 1 standings.”Brest is a setback. The gaps are not very important, now is the time to let go of the horses and take as many points as possible“, explains André, who believes that after the departures of Luiz Araujo last summer and Jonathan Ikoné, this winter, Lille “had some shortcomings. We needed players capable of eliminating, dribblers“. The arrival of Ben Arfa was mainly made possible by the departure of Yusuf Yazici. “Hatem is a particle accelerator, a profile that we did not have, different and complementary to our very good workforce. He has very rare qualities, the imbalance, the experience also of setting the tempo of a match“, exults the president Létang, who had remained in contact with his former player after their year in Rennes.
It is up to Gourvennec to get the best out of a player whose talent has never been questioned, but who remains an enigma and who will in any case not have a free pass with the champions of France. Besides, he could find it difficult to regularly invite himself into the starting lineup. Especially since for the Lille coach, his new number 11 is exclusively “an axis player, he always has been. He is very good at moving well, he is always in the right spaces, he has great ball grips“, he analyzes, he who already has a duo a priori irremovable in front, between Jonathan David and Burak Yilmaz. Although the latter, (much) less effective than last season, was noticed by a stormy outing in Brittany… “We managed this internally, it was received by management, I also received it to exchange“, indicates his teammate Benjamin André.
Ben Arfa’s revenge?
Eager to rediscover the game, pleasure and competition, Ben Arfa has nothing to do with it. In Lille, the former Parisian comes “to help the team when they need (him)“. Joker card. Contribute, contribute and blend in? This is the ambition of the person concerned. Victory too. “The most important thing is to achieve the objectives, like in Rennes. The club, the city was in turmoil“After the victory in the final of the Coupe de France, against Paris Saint-Germain precisely. Quite a revenge for “HBA”, who may have the opportunity to play a new nasty trick on his former club this Sunday, during the last match of the 23rd day of the championship. A bit like Marcin Bulka last Monday, during Nice’s qualification for the Coupe de France, at the Parc des Princes (0-0, 5-6 pens).
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Then, very quickly, there will be Chelsea, on February 22. Five-star program for Lille and Ben Arfa, the latter not planning on the comet and not planning beyond the end of the season and his contract. “A final challenge? We say that every time… But we never know what life brings us. The most important thing is not to cheat, and it’s at the end of the ball that we pay the musicians“, smiles Hatem Ben Arfa, who would probably not be against charging part of the bill to a PSG who leaves a “impression of collective incompleteness” but who “remains the best team in France and one of the best in Europe individually“says André. A challenge within reach of the ex-banished from the Park, even for a handful of minutes?
