Ben Arfa joins Lille

Lille have officially announced the signing of former Newcastle United and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa.

Ben Arfa joins on a deal until the end of the season after leaving the off-field, and now on-pitch, chaos and issues of Gironidins de Bordeaux in the summer of 2021.

©Catarina Morais

The former French international has 15 caps for his country, scoring two goals, but hasn’t played for Les Bleus since 2015.
Ben Arfa is famously a bit of a cult figure on Tyneside after his spell at Newcastle when he scored 12 goals in 72 league games, primarily under the management of Alan Pardew. 

His goal against Bolton Wanderers in April 2012, a month before Newcastle finished fifth in the table, has been viewed as one of the great Premier League goals and he is regularly viewed as a player with an abundance of talent, yet to be fully unlocked.

The maverick midfielder was a regular for Lyon, Marseille and Newcastle up until around 2014 before a loan move to Hull went badly. He had a very good season for Nice in 2015/16, earning a move to PSG but has since then not made much of an impact for Rennes, Real Valladolid and Bordeaux.

Lille are the reigning champions of France but have since lost manager, Christophe Galtier, as well as several key players from that title winning campaign as the northerners sit in the middle-of-the-table.

They have returned to some good form in recent weeks and will hope the potential spark that their new signing adds will continue that.