Ali Benarbia

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Ali Benarbia
Personal information
Full name Ali Benarbia
Date of birth (1968-10-08) 8 October 1968 (age 55)[1]
Place of birth Oran, Algeria
Height 1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s) 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
 19 (8)
2005–2006 Qatar SC 6 (1)
Total 454 (54)
International career
2000–2001 Algeria 7 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ali Benarbia (

Arabic: علي بن عربية; born 8 October 1968) is an Algerian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is a TV presenter for Al Jazeera Sports in Doha
.

As a player he was a

Al-Rayyan and Qatar SC. He was capped seven times by Algeria
between 2000 and 2001.

Benarbia is fondly remembered for his time at Manchester City and was nicknamed "The Algerian Magician".[2]

Early life

Ali Benarbia was born in Oran, Algeria, 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 started kicking a ball around on the streets.

Club career

Benarbia grabbed the attention of district side ROC Narbonne at only 10 years and seven years later he signed for FC Martigues. Encouraged by his father, Benarbia wanted to have a professional career in the game but knew that it would only come through hard-work. Playing in the youth team, Benarbia was quickly promoted to the first team in 1987 and went on to 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.

Monaco

After Martigues were relegated in 1995, Benarbia was signed by

Old Trafford.[3]

Bordeaux

After three seasons with AS Monaco, Benarbia moved to Bordeaux for £1 million and helped the club, where Zinedine Zidane made his name to the league title. With Benarbia playing the best football of his career, Paris Saint-Germain tabled an offer of £2 million 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.

Paris Saint-Germain

Benarbia was named captain of the PSG side, which featured Nigerian

A.C. Milan
.

Manchester City

Benarbia left France in 2001 and was signed on a free transfer by

Premier League, 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.

Al-Rayyan

Only five days after this announcement, on 27 July 2003, Benarbia signed up to play for

Nadi Qatar[5]
before announcing his retirement a year later.

International career

Benarbia was first approached by the Algerian Football Federation in 1986.[6] In a rare interview with French website LeButeur published in 2009, Benarbia said that he never refused to play for Algeria.[6] He stated that he was unhappy with the lack of professionalism within the national team and wanted the Federation to provide assurances for professional footballers' safety. During the time of Benarbia's playing career, Algeria struggled with political situations such as the 1986 oil price collapse, Black October and the Algerian Civil War.

He made his début in a 2002 African Cup of Nations Group 4 qualifying game against Burkina Faso in September 2000.[7] He represented Algeria a total of seven times, participating in; three World Cup qualifying games, two Africa Cup of Nations Cup qualifiers and two friendlies.

Honours

FC Martigues

  • 1992–93

Monaco

Bordeaux

  • 1998–99

Paris Saint-Germain

Manchester City

Individual

References

  1. ^ Ali Benarbia – FIFA competition record (archived)
  2. ^ Clayton, David. "Ali Benarbia: The Algerian magician". Manchester City FC. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  3. ^ "Monaco and bust for sorry United". The Independent. 19 March 1998. Archived from the original on 6 May 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  4. ISBN 1-84018-687-9
    . p29
  5. ^ Ali Benarbia Chooses Nadi Qatar Magharebia.com, 13 July 2005
  6. ^ a b "Ali Benarbia : "Je n'ai pas le sentiment d'avoir joué pour l'équipe d'Algérie !"" (in French). LeButeur. 26 November 2009. Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  7. ^ "2000 Matches". RSSSF. Retrieved 10 March 2013.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Paris Saint-Germain captain
1999–2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Manchester City captain
2002–2003 		Succeeded by
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