[Player] Hatem Ben Arfa

[Allez Lyonnais]

http://www.sport24.com/photos/1123138894.jpg

Date of birth: March 7, 1987
Place of birth: Clamart, France
Height: 1.80 m
Weight: 69 kg
Positions: left wing, right wing, attacking midfielder, center forward

[DaeHaMinGuk]

I hope he stays for the next 5 years. If Malouda is gone, I wouldn't mind giving him a chance to start at LW. If he fails, buy someone in January...

[lefutur]

i have a feeling he's going to really blossom next season.

[AfrcnHrbMan]

Yea me too, I think we will have a breakout season on the left wing next year once malouda leaves. As long as he stops being a fool and commits to the club

[lefutur]

he's been scoring some pretty goals lately...

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Good match coming on as a substitute in the second half for les Espoirs aujourd'hui. Continues to astound when he wants with his dribbling. He almost scored near the end of the game. Ben Arfa's my favorite player among those who will certainly be at Lyon in years ahead. I think if only he had been mature, he'd already be with Nasri and Benzema avec Les Bleus.

[Allez Lyonnais]

Now that Malouda will be gone, we really, really need him to step up on the big stage. I've always believed in his potential.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Me too. Come to think of it, the bright side with a lot of the big players leaving L1 this offseason is that it'll leave the door open to some of that Euro U-17 winning generation.

Malouda ---> Ben Arfa
Mavuba ---> Ducasse
Darcheville ---> Saivet (he is a U-17 right now)
Kader Keita ---> Debuchy (don't think he was on the squad)

Back to Ben Arfa, though, I hope if he's watching on TV this weekend, he'll realize he has to get his act together so he can be with both Nasri and Benzema on the NT.

[Inara]

I'm glad to see that Perrin wants to work with Ben Arfa :D


Alain Perrin (www.lequipe.fr):

"A Lyon, il y a un joyau qui s'appelle Ben arfa et que personne n'a encore réussi à exploiter. C'est un défi ça aussi?"

-"Oui. C'est un diamant brut. Il n'est pas fini. Mes prédécesseurs l'ont travaillés, moi j'arriverai peut être à un moment où la taille sera définitive. Mais s'il n'a pas encore eu son éclat, c'est que le travail n'est pas fini. Le problème avec les diamants, c'est que c'est dur à tailler parfois! Ben Arfa est un peu dur, je pense. Mais il y a un travail à faire ensemble, même si je n'ai pas la prétention de faire mieux que les autres".


And then Malouda (http://www.eurosport.fr/football/ligue-1/2006-2007/sport_sto1198523.shtml):

Je suis sur le départ....Pour me remplacer ? Je ne sais pas... Déjà, au club il y a Hatem (Ben Arfa), il a le profil.

[Allez Lyonnais]

Ben Arfa has been proclaimed as the replacement for Malouda. :)

Le départ de Flo est compensé par Ben Arfa, le joueur le plus talentueux que l'OL ait jamais connu. Ben Arfa, c'est Ronaldo. (Jean-Michel Aulas)

[Inara]

Ben Arfa, c'est Ronaldo. (Jean-Michel Aulas)

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Ben Arfa is my favorite OL player not named Squillaci or Tiago, but umm, Jean-mimi, I think that's going a bit too far.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Ben Arfa is my favorite OL player not named Squillaci or Tiago, but umm, Jean-mimi, I think that's going a bit too far.

Is Aulas going way too far, or not far enough? If anyone watched what Ben Arfa did during the Euro U-17 Championship a few years back, it's not a stretch at all. Then again, I suppose I'm one of those people who believes that if someone breaks through at a big youth tournament, they'll eventually do something of importance at the senior level, though it may take them a while.

Case in point, Florent Sinama-Pongolle. Highly regarded after winning the U-17 World Cup in Trinidad in 2001, he fell off the radar at Liverpool before now becoming quite a player, in my opinion, in Spain. Of course, it doesn't always work out that way. In Hatem's case, though, he now has all the motivation in the world to prove himself, and I don't think it'll be too long before he swaps his #11 Bleuets jersey for the #11 Bleus one.

[Allez Lyonnais]

He's got the trick. He just needs to be more intelligent in possession.

[guignol]

his preseason looks tasty. malouda said hatem would step up and so far it looks like he was right.

[lefutur]

He's dynamic and hungry. I think the transformation is already starting to show in terms of his maturity. Whoever said he's the next Christiano Ronaldo could be onto something.

[Inara]

He also gets dispossessed every five seconds. Between him and Belhadj, Lyon's left side is vulnerable defensively. But hopefully that's something they'll learn how to compensate for.

[lefutur]

I'm very impressed with Belhadj though considering he's the back-up to Grosso.

[guignol]

Whoever said he's the next Christiano Ronaldo could be onto something.that whoever was JMA! astute, but perhaps a bit biased!

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

If Ben Arfa has a breakthrough year and does well with Les Bleuets, there is no reason why he won't be heading to the Euros. Domenech has said that he is always looking at <<jeunes>> with "outstanding technical ability," and Ben Arfa would definitely be one of them.

The key, though, is that he has to play, since according to Domenech, this was why Yoann Gourcuff has not earned a Bleu cap yet. Indeed, Domenech has criticized Gourcuff's move to Milan, saying that had he stayed at Rennes, he would have been able to play in "40 matches this season," whereas with the Rossoneri, "he didn't appear as much, though he was more than honorable when he did."

[lefutur]

I was just thinking the same thing, about how quickly Ben Arfa could make the NT. There's no doubt that Malouda will be higher up on the hierarchy for quite a while but Ben Arfa can dribble past defenders better than Malouda and can make teams panic. His shooting is getting better too.

I think he will definately be called up soon as a substitute, especially now that he'll be getting much more playing time with Lyon.