Ali Benarbia

Ali Benarbia

Personal information
Full name	Ali Benarbia
Date of birth	8 October 1968 (1968-10-08)
Place of birth	Oran, Algeria
Height	1.71 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1985–1995	Martigues	201	(23)
1995–1998	Monaco	90	(8)
1998–1999	Bordeaux	25	(3)
1999–2001	Paris Saint-Germain	42	(0)
2001–2003	Manchester City	71	(11)
2003–2005	Al Rayyan
2005–2006	Qatar
Total		429	(45)
National team
2000–2001	Algeria	9	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Ali Benarbia (Arabic: علي بن عربية‎; born October 8, 1968 in Oran, Algeria) is a retired Algerian footballer.

Early Career

Ali Bénarbia or Ali ‘Son of Arabia” was born in Oran, with his family originating from Sidi-Bel-Abbès. When he was only a year old, the family settled in south of France. It was not long before the young Ali would started kicking a ball around of the streets grabbing the attention of district side ROC Narbonne at only 10 years and seven years later he had already signed for FC Martigues. Encouraged by his father, Ali wanted to have a professional career in the game but knew that it would only come through hard-work. Playing in the youth team, Ali was quickly promoted to the first team in 1987 and went onto help the club into the French first division after winning the second division title in 1993. He was part of the side that was promoted to Ligue 1 in 1993, operating as a midfielder.

Stardom

After Martigues were relegated in 1995, he was signed by AS Monaco and two seasons later he helped the club to a league title mounting speculation in the French media on whether the coach of France Aime Jacquet should select him for the national team after several breathtaking performances including an outstanding double in a 3-1 win over Newcastle United in the UEFA Cup. In season 1997-98, he was named Player of the Year in the France but still no call came from the French coach. Bénarbia had turned down several offers to play for his home country of Algeria, as he had always hoped to play for France. After three seasons with AS Monaco, he moved to Bordeaux for £1m and helped the club, where Zidane made his name to the league title. With Ali playing the best football of his career, Paris St.Germain tabled an offer of £2m for the Algerian player only a month before the end of the season, the club accepted but the deal was kept quiet until Bordeaux had clinched the title, although he failed to capture the same form there.

Not long after, Ali was named captain of the side, which featured Nigerian Augustine ‘J.J’ Okocha and later Nicolas Anelka. The team failed to win anything, though they did manage to qualify for the Champions’ League, finishing last in the group with Deportivo, Galatasaray and AC Milan.

Benarbia left France in 2001 and was signed on a free transfer by Manchester City F.C., whose manager Kevin Keegan was familiar with him from when he scored two goals for Monaco against Keegan's Newcastle United. He became a firm favourite amongst the supporters as City won the Football League First Division and promotion back to the Premiership, winning the club's player of the year award and being named in the select side for the Division. He was made captain the following season, although he found the pace of the Premier League harder and was much less influential in his second season. He played his final game in a City shirt in 2003 against FC Barcelona in a game to mark the opening of the City of Manchester Stadium, before announcing his retirement.

Only five days after this announcement, on July 27, Benarbia signed up to play for Al-Rayyan of Qatar. After two years with the club, he moved on to play for Nadi Qatar[1] before announcing his retirement a year later.

Benarbia, a French citizen, had initially wanted to represent France internationally, although eventually he gave up and accepted the call up to the Algerian national side, making his debut at the 2002 African Cup of Nations in a Group 4 game against Burkina Faso. He has since represented his country a number of times.

Honours

Club

FC Martigues

• Ligue 2: 1992-93

AS Monaco

• Ligue 1: 1996-97

FC Bordeaux

• Ligue 1: 1998-99

Individual

• Ligue 1 Player of the Year: 1998-99

• Player of the Year for Manchester City: 2001-02

External links

• (French) Unofficial site