At Zack Nani, the former Girondins de Bordeaux midfielder, Yacine Adliwas invited to speak about the old Bordeaux, Hatem Ben Arfa.
“Oh my Hatem… Hatem, really, I had some good times with him. Hatem is someone quite special, but once he has tamed you, once you are in his circle, once he is close to you… Hatem is often categorized as the guy who is a bit neuneu… Hatem, he is extremely intelligent. Hatem, he is intelligent like few guys. Hatem was the guy I played chess with, and that sets the scene for you. We played a lot of chess together. We talked a lot, and he’s a smart guy.”
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“Afterwards, sometimes, like all geniuses, he has moments when he disconnects, when he is in his own thing etc., he sees things that some people don’t see. It has a special history too. He has a thread of his life, which… He experienced things in his childhood, with his family, which meant that today he is this guy, this guy with this shell. His life journey has made him that guy. But Hatem Ben Arfa, beyond being a genius, really is a genius in all areas. In all areas of life, he is a genius.”
And in terms of football?
“Yeah, he was too strong… He came to Bordeaux, he hadn’t played for four months, he was without a club. Did you do any prep? ‘No, but don’t worry, I’ll train for a week and it’ll be fine’. We go to Marseille, he played a match… And then, it was he who made us win the matches. There were then problems in the locker room, group problems, which meant that he was affected and less efficient subsequently, etc., but on the talent side, pfff… It’s something.”
He finally gave an anecdote.
“He gave me advice, which is really rare. He told me ‘as soon as you’re going to go to the big clubs, as soon as there’s a guy you don’t like, drop him, put him OUT. Don’t insist. In the big clubs it’s like that. And I saw some guys, and I understood what he wanted to tell me.”
Transcription Girondins4Ever