Without a club since the end of his adventure in Lille, Hatem Ben Arfa has thrown himself headlong into a new sport.
Hatem Ben Arfa has certainly still not announced his retirement. But at 36, the former Marseillais has not played for a year and a half and his last match with Losc, in the spring of 2022. Since then, if his name has been cited for a time in Turkey, where several clubs from elite had checked his name, the native of Clamart seems to have made up his mind.
Very rare in the media as well as on social networks, the former French international has visibly found a new passion according to Le Parisien. Like many former professionals, Hatem Ben Arfa has indeed given in to the fashion of padel and is completely melted. So much so that in a year and a half the Ile-de-France native has already played no less than 70 tournaments. Licensed at 4Padel in Saint-Denis, Hatem Ben Arfa is now at 1342e rank out of 42,000 ranked players.
This passion for padel could allow him to meet other former football glories. We know Zinedine Zidane is a big fan, to the point of having opened several centers in these Z5s between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, and L’Equipe reported last week that Didier Deschamps had also become addicted and did not hesitate to have a track built in his villa in Cap d’Ail.
