page_title: Hatem Ben Arfa
section_title: Marseille
hierarchical_section_title: Hatem Ben Arfa / Club career / Marseille
caption_attribution_description: Finale de la coupe de la ligue - OM vs Bordeaux 3-1 - Stade de France - 27 mars 2010
context_page_description: Hatem Ben Arfa is a French professional footballer who plays as a winger and an attacking midfielder. Known for his dribbling ability, he has been described as "one of the best-rated talents in France" but has been criticised by the media and players alike for lacking discipline.
  Ben Arfa's career started in the Île-de-France region, where he trained at AC Boulogne-Billancourt and Versailles. In 1999, he was selected to attend the Clairefontaine academy. He spent three years there before leaving for Lyon, where he won four Ligue 1 titles. In his early career at Lyon, he played as a centre forward but moved into a winger role during the 2007–08 season. In the summer of 2008, Ben Arfa signed with rivals Marseille for €11 million in a move that required the intervention of the Ligue de Football Professionnel. With Marseille, he won the 2009–10 league title, his fifth overall, as well as the Coupe de la Ligue in 2010. After two years at Marseille, Ben Arfa joined English club Newcastle United on loan for the 2010–11 season. The deal was made permanent later in the season.
  Ben Arfa spent four years at Newcastle, with a loan spell at Hull City in his final season at the club.
context_section_description: Despite reported interest from English clubs Everton, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Spanish club Real Madrid, rumors of a move to rivals Marseille began to surface. On 28 June 2008, Lyon confirmed that a proposed transfer to Marseille had been cancelled for the time being. 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 pre-season training the following day. La Provence later reported that Ben Arfa had in fact missed training in Lyon on 30 June, confirming his intentions.
  Ben Arfa officially joined Marseille on 1 July 2008 for €12 million, with future incentives to be included later, after an agreement was reached between Marseille and Lyon in a meeting organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. As a result of the disagreement over the transfer, in December 2008, Ben Arfa told the local Lyon newspaper Le Progrès that his former team lacked class and was not a great team. Ben Arfa was presented to the media and had his first training session with the club the same day. He was given the number 20 shirt. On 16 July, Ben Arfa was involved in another training session bust-up, this time with striker and France international Djibril Cissé. Cissé later joined English club Sunderland on loan.
  Ben Arfa made his league debut on the opening day of the season in a 4–4 draw with Rennes. He scored his first goal for Les Marseillais in that match. He continued in form scoring six times in his first 11 matches. However, his reputation for controversy continued to haunt him when he was involved in another dispute, this time with the Cameroon international Modeste M'bami during a warm up session ahead of the club's UEFA Champions League match against Liverpool. The two had to be separated by Ronald Zubar. Controversy arose again following Marseille's 4–2 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 later said he was injured much to the chagrin of Gerets, but later apologized for the incident to the media and Gerets himself. 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.
  Ben Arfa switched to the number 10 shirt for the 2009–10 season and made his debut on the opening match day of the season in a 2–0 away victory over Grenoble appearing as a substitute in the 68th minute. The following week, he earned his first start of the season against Lille and assisted the winning goal scored by Brandão. Controversy surfaced again, however, when, on 8 October 2009, Ben Arfa was fined €10,000 by the club for missing a training session. Ben Arfa blamed the absence on airport delays as he was in Tunisia visiting family members during the international break. A month later, on 18 November, he got into a heated argument with manager Didier Deschamps during a training session, for which Ben Arfa later apologized. Under Deschamps in the first half of the season, Ben Arfa appeared in 15 of the club's 20 league matches and only played the full 90 minutes in two matches, a 2–1 defeat against Monaco and a 2–0 defeat to Auxerre.
  Ben Arfa's play during the 2010 portion of the season earned praise from both Deschamps and sporting director José Anigo. On 10 January 2010, Ben Arfa scored his first goal of the season against amateur club Trélissac in the Coupe de France. A month later, he was instrumental in Marseille's 5–1 victory over Valenciennes assisting on the opening goal scored by Lucho González. Later that month, Ben Arfa scored an away goal in the first leg of the club's UEFA Europa League tie against Danish club FC København. In the return leg in Marseille, Ben Arfa struck again, scoring the opening goal in the 43rd minute. Marseille won the match 3–1 and the tie 6–2 on aggregate. On 27 February, he scored his first league goal of the season in a 3–0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain. Ben Arfa's play in the month of February was validated when
caption: Ben Arfa taking on Bordeaux defender Matthieu Chalmé.
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