Hatem Ben Arfa produced several magical moments but also frustrated during a five-year career at Newcastle United.
Manchester United legend Patrice Evra believes Hatem Ben Arfa was more talented than Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema.
France developed the Clairefontaine football centre in 1988 and, within a decade, unleashed a wave of talent that secured World Cup glory a decade later. Ben Arfa, alongside Benzema and Samir Nasri, was part of the second batch during the early 2000s.
The playmaker was viewed as a prodigious talent at Lyon, attracting interest from Arsenal and Real Madrid. But discipline issues that plagued Ben Arfa’s career soon disrupted his development.
Newcastle United signed Ben Arfa on loan from Marseille and, despite breaking his leg after four games, made a permanent switch for £5million six months later. Under former boss Alan Pardew, the Frenchman produced magical moments at St James’ Park - helping the club finish fifth - but bust-ups became commonplace and he was booted out in 2014.
Hatem Ben Arfa squandered a legendary career
When asked about the most talented French player of his generation, ex-Man United ace Evra wasted no time. He replied: “Ben Arfa. I’ve never seen something like that. But it is crazy because he just doesn’t care. He’s living another world. Now I think he loves playing paddle.
“You saw a little bit of Ben Arfa when he signed for Newcastle. If you ask any Newcastle fan about Ben Arfa, he made them dream. But one game he would come into training and say ‘I don’t want to train today’. Like from nowhere, he was like that. I think those players it’s all psychologically.”
France’s ‘lost generation’ between World Cup wins
Evra also reflected on the lost generation of French players who bridged the gap between World Cup triumphs in 1998 and 2018. He added: “The problem was the 1998 World Cup winners didn't want to let it go. France was for them. So when they saw Benzema, Ben Arfa, Nasri, it was quite like a jealousy. The worst tournament we had wasn’t 2010, it was 2008.
“The team we had… but they just couldn’t agree with each other. French people, we love to fight and protest, we have this in our DNA. It was the lost generation. But Benzema, Nasri and Ben Arfa, the talent they had, they had the pace and talent to play at the highest level. It was just too much drama.”
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Alan Pardew on ‘very difficult’ Hatem Ben Arfa
“I managed Hatem Ben Arfa at Newcastle, a very difficult character. Hatem was an unbelievable talent, by the way. If you said to me ‘Give a player the ball who can beat two defenders out of players I had’, I’d probably give it to Hatem.
“But I didn’t play him all the time because he antagonised staff and players. He had this way of upsetting the camp a little bit. His defensive work was zero. But he was a tremendous talent on the ball.”
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