Hatem Ben Arfa (Arabic: حاتم بن عرفة‎) (born on March 7, 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 before departing. Early in his career at Lyon, he played as a centre forward, but moved into the winger role, during the 2007–08 season.

[edit] Early career

Ben Arfa began his career at Montrouge CF 92, a local club in the Parisian suburbs. There, he was teammates with current Senegalese international Issiar Dia. In 1998, both players moved to the prestigious sporting club AC Boulogne-Billencourt, where they trained for a year. In 1999, both Ben Arfa and Dia were selected to attend the Clairefontaine academy. While at Clairefontaine, Ben Arfa was apart of “A la Clairefontaine”, a documentary series by Bruno Sevaistre, that chronicled the lives of the France's top young talents during their time at the academy.^[2] One intriguing moment during the series came when Ben Arfa got into an argument with Abou Diaby, who now plays for English club Arsenal.^[3]

[edit] Olympique Lyonnais

At 15 and already being labeled a prodigy, Ben Arfa joined Olympique Lyonnais who were, at the time, coming off of 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 agreeing to a three-year deal, despite late interest from English club Chelsea and Dutch outfit Ajax.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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 would score two late goals, thus beating Lyon 2–3.^[7] He also made his UEFA Champions League debut in a group stage match against Manchester United coming on as a substitute for Sidney Govou.

The following season, Ben Arfa switched to the first team number 18 shirt, but his substitute to start ratio was still high making 12 appearances, seven 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 waning minutes of the match.^[8] He scored his first league goal during the 2006–07 season against Sedan just before halftime. That goal eventually became the winner as Lyon won the match 1–0.^[9]

[edit] 2007–08 season

With wingers Florent Malouda and Sylvain Wiltord departing the club, incoming manager Alain Perrin, who preferred the more modern 4-3-3 formation opted to move Ben Arfa into the left winger 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.^[10] Arguably his best performances in a Lyon shirt came in a span of 12 days, in which he participated a league match on 27 October against Paris Saint-Germain and played against German club VfB Stuttgart on 7 November in the Champions League. He scored a brace in both matches with both results being in favor of Lyon.

Despite rumors of a rift between himself and Karim Benzema^[11], Ben Arfa signed an extension with Lyon in March 2008 until 2010.^[12] However, his career at Lyon reached an impasse after he got into a training scuffle with veteran Sébastien Squillaci.^[13]

[edit] Olympique Marseille

Despite reported interest from English clubs Manchester United, Arsenal^[14], and Spanish club Real Madrid^[15], 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.^[16] 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 preseason training the following day on 30 June.^[17] La Provence later reported that Ben Arfa had in fact missed training in Lyon that day, confirming his intentions.^[18]

Ben Arfa officially joined Marseille on 1 July 2008 for €20 million with future incentives to be included later, after an agreement was reached between Marseille and Lyon in a meeting organized by the LFP.^[19] As a result of the conflict over the transfer, in December of 2008, Ben Arfa told the French paper Le Progrès that his former team, Olympique Lyonnais, lacks class and is not a great team. ^[20] Ben Arfa was presented to the media and had his first training session with the club the same day.^[21] He was assigned 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.^[22] Cissé later joined English club Sunderland on loan.

Ben Arfa made his league debut on the opening match day in a thrilling 4–4 draw with Rennes. He scored his first goal for the Marseilles in that match.^[23] He continued great form scoring 6 times in his first 11 matches, however, his past would continue to haunt him as he would be 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.^[24] 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 cited an injury as his reason much to the chagrin of Gerets and later apologized for the incident to the media and Gerets himself.^[25] 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.^[26]

Ben Arfa will switch to the number 10 shirt for the upcoming 2009–10 season.

[edit] 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.^[27] In 2004, he was a part of the under-17 squad, comprised 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, wishing to continue his career with the French national team.^[28]

Ben Arfa was called up to the French squad for the first time on 10 October 2007 by Raymond Domenech to replace the injured Louis Saha and play in the EURO 2008 qualifying matches against the Faroe Islands and Lithuania.^[29] This move stunned critics of Domenech as they were expected the on form striker David Trezeguet to get the call up.^[30] 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.

[edit] All-time club performance

As of 14 June 2009

[edit] 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

[edit] Honours

[edit] 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

[edit] International

France

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

[edit] Individual

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

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• LFP Profile
• OM.net Profile