Ali Benarbia

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Ali Benarbia
Personnel
birthday October 8, 1968
place of birth Oran ,  Algeria
size 171 cm
position midfield
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1985-1995 FC Martigues 252 (28)
1995-1998 AS Monaco 90 0(8)
1998-1999 Girondins Bordeaux 25 0(3)
1999-2001 Paris Saint-Germain 42 0(0)
2001-2003 Manchester City 71 (11)
2003-2005 Al-Rayyan SC
2005-2006 Qatar SC
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
2000-2001 Algeria 9 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Ali Benarbia (born October 8, 1968 in Oran , Algeria) is a former Algerian-French football player .

Club career

At the age of three, Benarbia came with his family from Algeria to France and began his professional career there in 1985 with the second division club FC Martigues . In 1993 he rose with the club in Division 1 , in which he scored nine goals in 65 point games for the team from Provence . In 1995 Benarbia moved to AS Monaco , with whom he won the French championship and the Trophée des Champions at the end of his second season . In 1999 a second championship title followed with Girondins Bordeaux . In both championship years he was also named Player of the Year in Division 1, in 1997 with the Étoile d'Or awarded by the specialist magazine France Football , and two years later with the Trophée UNFP , in which the players of the two top French divisions cast their votes. From 1999 Benarbia played for the capital club Paris Saint-Germain , for which he had decided despite the personally very successful season in Bordeaux because he considered it to be "one of the five top clubs in Europe". In 2001, however, he decided to move abroad.

On the way back from a disappointing trial session at Sunderland AFC - because head coach Peter Reid was not present at the training session, he was supposed to attend another one, which Benarbia refused - he stopped at Manchester City to meet Alioune Touré and was spontaneously from there Trainer Kevin Keegan invited to attend afternoon training. At Manchester City, playmaker Eyal Berkovic had only recently been injured and Keegan quickly realized that the Algerian he knew from a clash in the 1996/97 UEFA Cup quarter-finals when Benarbia scored twice against Keegan's Newcastle United to have found a suitable replacement. On September 14, 2001 he was signed for a free transfer and made his debut a day later at a home game against Birmingham City , when he prepared two goals in the 3-0 win. Benarbia was a key player in the team in the months that followed, as City confidently returned to the Premier League as the second division champions with 99 points and 108 goals . With his technical and playful skills, which were far above the level of the English second class, he immediately became a crowd favorite. After Berkovic returned from his injury break, Keegan started playing in a 3-5-2 system with two playmakers, in particular strikers Shaun Goater (28 goals), Darren Huckerby (20 goals) and Paulo Wanchope (12 goals) benefited. At the end of the season, City fans voted Benarbia “Player of the Year” and he was one of three City players in the “PFA First Division Team of the Year” alongside Berkovic and Goater.

After the rise, Benarbia took over the captain's armband from the resigned Stuart Pearce . Keegan also initially relied on an unconditional offensive in the Premier League, but soon found that the midfield did not meet the requirements defensively. The manager opted for a more defensive game system after matchday ten, when the club had slipped to a relegation zone, in which Berkovic was given preference. It was only in the second half of the season that Benarbia came back to the starting line-up and ended the season with Manchester in ninth place. During the pre-season preparation in the summer of 2003, Benarbia dissolved his contract with Manchester and announced the end of his career, which only lasted a few days. Instead, he let his career end in Qatar , initially for two years at Al-Rayyan SC - alongside Mario Basler , Fernando Hierro as well as Frank and Ronald de Boer  - and then another season at Qatar SC . During this time, he recommended his ex-club Manchester City several players who were active in Qatar, including Hussein Yasser and Pep Guardiola , who were each invited to test training. In the case of Yasser, this recommendation also resulted in an obligation.

successes

with his clubs

Individually

literature

  • David Clayton: Manchester City's Cult Heroes . Know the Score Books, Studley 2007, ISBN 978-1-905449-05-7 , pp. 142-148 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ so Benarbia in an interview in France Football of July 2, 1999, p. 10
  2. ^ Clayton, pp. 144f
  3. ↑ bbc.co.uk: Man City sign Qatar star Hussein (16 Aug 2005)
  4. ↑ bbc.co.uk: Man City offer trial to Guardiola (10 Aug 2005)
personal data
SURNAME Benarbia, Ali
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Algerian-French soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Oran , Algeria