Former Toon winger Hatem Ben Arfa is set to return to his home country following a disappointing stint in Spain, according to reports in France.
This comes from L’Equipe and Foot Mercato, who claim he’s arrived in Bordeaux to complete a medical with the Ligue 1 side.
Ben Arfa, who played 86 times for the Toon from 2010-14, spent six months at Real Valladolid but failed to impress in his spell there – making just five appearances.
At 33, the attacker is set to join his sixth side since being shown the exit door by Alan Pardew and actually moved to Spain on the back of a decent run of form at Rennes.
His career has been plagued by discipline issues but there is no question that he is one of the most gifted players to ever put on a black-and-white shirt.
The attitude never matched the talent and despite a memorable time on Tyneside his career has never really reached the heights it was expected to when he burst onto the scene in the mid-noughties with Lyon, with the likes of Arsenal and Real Madrid once interested in his services.
Hopefully he can enjoy an impactful twilight to his career as he is one of my all-time favourite NUFC players. His ability to beat a man and create something out of nothing has only been matched by Allan Saint-Maximin since his departure – lets just hope our latest French winger finds the consistency and has the mindset to reach the level that Hatem unfortunately never managed to hit.
Ginola, Robert, Ben Arfa and now St Max. We sure have had some incredible French attackers over the years.
Not sure why any manager would expect Ben Arfa to put in a shift and defend. With a generational talent like him, you just tell him to stay up the pitch and do your thing. Could win you games on his own
Anthony(Quote)