He was one of the biggest talents of French football, he was the one Karim Benzema looked up to, he should have been Ballon d’Or winner, but instead he is a 17 year old boy trapped in a 35 year old body, and he has just been suspended from a first team of the club he joined only 45 days ago. Yep, it’s easy to guess, it’s Hatem Ben Arfa, who is removed from the Lille’s first squad until further notice. And all because he questioned his coach, again.Hatem Ben Arfa at his very best ⚡️Not many players can score goals like this 😳An #FACup classic 🔥 pic.twitter.com/37W0272Yn2— GOAL (@goal) January 4, 2020 This attitude problem has been following his since his early childhood, and it erupted in almost every club he has played for (and he had 10 so far), but his former agent maybe gave the best example of the player when he remembered the days when now world’s famous Karim Benzema played along Ben Arfa.“When I was looking after them both, in the U17s, I went to see them in training. I saw Karim watching Hatem mischievously, to see what he was doing. Karim was then looking to do it again and again. Thanks to Hatem, Karim, who understood that he was second best, realised that talent wasn’t going to be enough. That gave him that desire to be the best, and he has got there. As for Hatem, he didn’t have the same realisation, he thought that talent would be enough. And when we watch him now, he’s still convinced. I’m sure that some psychiatrists would rack their brains with a character as difficult as Hatem’s” said Frederic Guerra to RMC.”The walls were shaking”: Bad boy Hatem slates his boss after the draw with BordeauxA manager who took care of Ben Arfa for four years in his youth called his former client the ‘biggest wasted talent of the 21st century’“Things have been wrong psychologically for a long time, since his childhood. He was the king, the king, the king. He was always told his rights but never his responsibilities. When I noticed him and that his parents trusted me, I was convinced I had a player who would go on to win a Ballon d’Or, such was his talent. It remains a great waste, he’s perhaps the biggest wasted talent of 21st century football. Hatem is 35 now, but he’ll be 17 all his life. He’s a child” said Guerra.🇫🇷 Hatem Ben Arfa’s future at Lille looks over after a bust up. The former Newcastle United midfielder was involved in a heated exchange with Tiago Djalo before reportedly attacking other players in the locker room L’Equipe claims following their draw with Bordeaux.#NUFC pic.twitter.com/hMKfy46USx— Magpie 24/7 – Newcastle United (@Magpie24_7) April 4, 2022 And let’s get back to the beginning of the story: what did he said to his coach during his benching in the match against Bordeaux? Well, current Ligue 1 champions Lille were playing against his former club, currently worst club in the league, and failed to score even thou they had one player more on the pitch from the 35th minute. Lille defender Thiago Djalo was also involved in the incident that saw the former PSG and Lyon man shouted at his coach:“We’re playing too deep here. We’re not playing like a team that’s challenging for Europe. This isn’t Guingamp!” Gourvennec has previously coached Guingamp twice.His name is Galtier, and he’s probably the most underrated coach in Europe nowadaysFormer Lille and PSG defender, and Ben Arfa’s former teammate in Lyon Mathieu Bodmer tried to defend him.“Hatem does not know how to pretend. I find that it is a quality but it can be perceived by some as a defect or a difficulty in a group. When something is wrong, he says it, he doesn’t keep it to himself, he expresses himself. Things don’t always go in the right direction and it’s sometimes badly taken by the coaches or its partners. It always starts from a desire, it’s to help the team” said Bodmer.(2.15) WEST HAM (3.50) LYON (3.60)And even Karim Benzema was defending his former teammate from Lyon in 2017, when things were not clicking between the player and his club at the time, PSG.”He has talent at Messi’s level. I am not fooling around. It hurts me to see his current situation at PSG” said Benzema. Five years later, Ben Arfa still has problems with the clubs he is playing for.
