Whatever happened to Ali Benarbia?

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Whatever happened to Ali Benarbia?

November 28, 2007 -- HE was only at Manchester City for just under two years, and yet Ali Benarbia did enough in that brief stay to win himself a place in club folklore.

The Algerian midfielder's eye for a killer pass, his skill on the ball and his ability to chip in with a few goals were all major factors in the success of Kevin Keegan's free-scoring First Division championship-winning side of 2002.

His last game for the Blues was their first match at the City of Manchester Stadium; a pre-season friendly against Barcelona in 2003. And on Sunday, he'll return there.

Benarbia is another of the glittering cast list of ex-pro footballers gathering at Manchester City's ground on Sunday for the PFA Centenary charity match between a team of England legends and a Rest of the World side.

As I mentioned yesterday in my blog entry on Andrei Kanchelskis, it's all for a good cause - the PFA's 'One Goal, One Million' appeal, which aims to raise £1million for a rehabilitation and physiotherapy unit at the new Manchester Children's Hospital.

I got the chance to speak to Ali a little earlier on, for an article which will appear in Friday's Manchester Evening News. What I really wanted to know was what he is up to these days.

I knew that Benarbia had gone out to play in Qatar for a while after leaving City, but he retired in 2006. So I asked him what he was doing now. This is what he told me:

"My wife Wasaa works in a beauty salon in Qatar. I played in Qatar, but I finished in 2006. Now I help my wife.

"Maybe one day I will go back to France and work with Manchester City by going to look at players for them, and maybe help them to sign those players."

Benarbia, now 39, can't wait to come back to Manchester for Sunday's game. He added: "I'm very happy and excited about coming back to see so many friends."

For ticket details regarding Sunday's match, click here

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November 30, 2007 -- Ali Benarbia has hailed Stephen Ireland and hamstring injury victim Elano as the driving forces behind City's remarkable start to life under Sven-Goran Eriksson.

The Algerian playmaker has been keeping tabs on his former club's progress on television from his home in Qatar.

Benarbia is thrilled to see City lying third in the Premier League with more than a third of the season gone.

The 39-year-old, who has now retired after seeing out his career in Qatar with Al-Rayyan and Nadi Qatar, can see the attacking potential to keep the Blues at the right end of the top flight. And he believes that a chunk of that success is down to a mixture of Brazilian magic and Irish flair.

He said: "The team look good in defence and midfield. They are very good, and very quick.

"I have been impressed by what I have seen of Elano. He is a very good player and has scored some excellent goals.

"He is a bit of a playmaker, like I was. He tries to make incisive passes to the striker.

"Ireland is having a good season too, and he is getting important goals, which have taken the pressure off Elano and the forwards.

"Both players are valuable to the team because they can score vital goals. And they have a strong defence behind them, so they know that if they can score one goal, it will probably be enough."

Despite the influence of Elano and Ireland, no one would claim that City have been as free-scoring this season as they were after Benarbia joined the club from Paris St Germain on a free transfer in 2001. The move was the start of Benarbia's love affair with City, which continues to this day, even though he left more than four years ago.

He will get the chance to see some old friends again when he returns to Manchester this weekend for a charity match to mark the PFA's centenary.

Benarbia will feature in a Rest of the World squad, led by City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson, which will face a team of England legends picked by Terry Venables at the City of Manchester Stadium on Sunday.

The game, which kicks off at 1.30pm, has been organised in aid of the PFA's 'One Goal, One Million' appeal, which aims to raise £1m for a rehabilitation and physiotherapy unit at the new Manchester Children's Hospital.

Benarbia said: "I am really looking forward to the match. I am looking forward to meeting lots of old friends."

Among the old friends Benarbia will be reunited with is his former City team-mate Shaun Goater, who will also be turning out for the Rest of the World side.

During the goals fest that was City's First Division title-winning campaign of 2001- 2002, Benarbia fed the Goat as much as anyone.

Benarbia said: "Shaun is a very, very clever guy, and he was one of the most passionate, hard-working strikers I ever played with.

"When I was in France, I played with Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Sylvain Wiltord. But Shaun was the only one who scored 32 goals in a season."

Kevin Keegan brought Benarbia to City on the advice of his assistant Arthur Cox, who was Kenny Dalglish's No2 at Newcastle when the Algerian scored twice against the Magpies for Monaco in a UEFA Cup tie in March 1997. Benarbia had a ball during his two seasons at Maine Road, though his City career almost stalled before it got going.

He said: "Arthur remembered me playing for Monaco against Newcastle, and thought I could help City. Kevin picked me to make my debut against Birmingham, but I missed my flight from Paris on the morning of the game. So I only arrived in Manchester at 11am, and it was an early kick-off, but by 12.30pm I was playing at Maine Road! But that was a great time.

"Everybody enjoyed going into training. It was a joy to play alongside players such as Darren Huckerby, Eyal Berkovic , Shaun Wright-Phillips and Paulo Wanchope."

Benarbia is delighted that Wright-Phillips has now made a name for himself on the international stage too.

He said: "I am very happy for Shaun."

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