Hatem Ben Arfa’s move to Olympique de Marseille caused sparks. On the ground but not only…
Hatem Ben Arfa left an indelible mark wherever he went. Sometimes not for the right reasons as was the case in Paris where he was essentially confined to the sidelines before becoming persona non grata on the orders of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.
But for most of his former teammates, whether at Lyon, Marseille, Nice or Rennes, Hatem Ben Arfa is undoubtedly the strongest player with whom they played. This is in any case the opinion of Benoît Cheyrou who worked alongside Hatem Ben Arfa during the three seasons spent by the native of Clamart at OM.
“I’m not going to be original: Ben Arfa. When he wanted to, he could dribble past anyone,” he confided about himself to the microphone of Smail Bouabdellah for the Kampo podcast. However, the former midfielder does not only have good memories of Hatem Ben Arfa and the two teammates also had numerous clashes in the Olympian locker room.
“We almost fought, even several times”
“Yeah, there were a lot of stories in the locker room, with him, with Gignac too. Hatem, the first days, we almost fought, even several times. We were too different, we didn’t understand each other.” he said. But ultimately all it took was a bus ride for Hatem Ben Arfa’s view of his teammate to change completely.
“One day, I’m on the bus, he must have been behind me or next to me, he hears the music I’m listening to. He said: “Ah, do you listen to that as music? “. It was probably rap or rnb, that’s what I listen to, he explained. He said to me: “I didn’t know you were listening to this, can I listen with you?” »And so I give him an earphone, we listen together. I’m surprised. Since that day, he completely changed, he opened up and we laughed together. Did we have good times together? Even though we were really different. »
