Cardinale: Ben Arfa, the strongest player he ever played with at Nice

Yoan Cardinale has no doubt: Hatem Ben Arfa is the strongest player he ever played alongside throughout his career. The former OGC Nice goalkeeper made this statement to L’Équipe, four years after the 39-year-old forward’s last official match.

Cardinale particularly recalls a decisive half-time moment when he turned to Ben Arfa with a direct request. “When you reach half-time in a match, you go see a player and tell him ‘Please, make us win’, and he does it, that’s when you know he’s someone special,” he confides. Training sessions painted a more mixed picture: “There were good days, bad days. On the good days, we’d watch him with wide eyes wondering what he was doing with us.”

Those “good” days left a lasting impression. During the 2015-2016 season, Ben Arfa scored 17 league goals in a Nice shirt, a performance that remains the benchmark of his Ligue 1 career. The former French international, who earned 15 caps with the national team, had then imposed his class on a club that was not among the title favorites.

Cardinale also illustrates Ben Arfa’s singular sense of humor. Before his first match as a starter, coach Claude Puel writes the opposing lineup on the board. Ben Arfa stands up and laughs alone. When asked why, he replies: “They put that player in central defense! But I’m going to destroy him!” A scene that sums up the character perfectly: unpredictable, in his own world, but rarely wrong when it comes to reading a match.

Despite a move into padel, Ben Arfa has not officially announced his retirement. Last winter, OGC Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivère attempted to bring him back to Nice, a sign that the flame is not entirely extinguished in the eyes of those who knew him closely.