Paris Saint-Germain’s attacker, Hatem Ben Arfa, has stated that he would be leaving the ranks of the Ligue 1 giants in the summer and would be available on a free transfer. He has been made an outcast by Unai Emery as he is yet to feature for the club in this campaign. Premier League outfit, Leicester City, are believed to have been closely monitoring Ben Arfa’s situation at Parc des Princes for quite some time and are keen to lure him to the King Power Stadium in the summer.
Ben Arfa started his senior career with Lyon back in 2004 after spending two years in the youth divisions of the Lyon academy. After making a substantial amount of impact with Les Gones, he was signed by Marseille and he made his presence felt there as well. After a few seasons, Newcastle United roped him to their ranks in the summer of 2010, initially on loan, which was converted into a permanent deal six months later.
He engineered a strong liking towards him from Newcastle United’s supporters but was released by the Geordies after he spent six months on loan with Hull City during the 2014-15 season. Prior to moving to Paris Saint-Germain, the 31-year-old worked under the tutelage of Puel at OGC Nice and chiselled the best season of his career. Having worked closely with Ben Arfa at Nice, Puel is quite familiar with the calibre that he possesses and no wonder why he has placed him on his radar.
The Foxes have had a decent campaign in the English top flight and after 31 league outings, they are placed at the 8th spot in the league standings with 43 points to their name. However, there is no denying that Puel would be keen to enhance the quality of his arsenal in the summer to better their stature in the upcoming campaign. Thus, signing someone like Ben Arfa, who has truckloads of experience under his belt, would make a lot of sense.
Ben Arfa is a versatile attacker who is capable enough to ply his trade as a central attacking midfielder, winger as well as a striker. He is a cunning attacker and when he is given the license to spend time on the pitch, he can be a real threat to the opposition’s back line owing to his creativity, vision and goalscoring tendency.
Besides, the Frenchman is in the need to resurrect his career and a move to Leicester City could be a beneficial one for him.
