On the Côte d’Azur, a return few in French football would have imagined came close to becoming real: Hatem Ben Arfa was considered for an OGC Nice comeback in January 2026, four years after his last professional appearance.
The Ligue 1 news
Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivère explored the possibility of bringing back the 39-year-old former France international after returning to the club himself in December 2025, during a severe period of instability at the Allianz Riviera.
Rivère had signed Ben Arfa for Nice in 2015 and retained contact with the attacking midfielder. Their previous partnership produced the finest campaign of Ben Arfa’s career, when he scored 17 goals and supplied six assists in 34 matches under Claude Puel during the 2015-16 season.
Ben Arfa, capped 15 times by France and scorer of two international goals, has not formally announced his retirement. He has not played for a professional club since leaving Lille in 2022, although he has continued competing in padel and is ranked among France’s top 750 players.
The former Lyon, Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain player was receptive when Rivère raised a possible return. Nice were struggling in the league, and the club president hoped a strong Coupe de France run could help persuade Ben Arfa to take part in an unexpected late-career project.
Nice reached the final but lost 3-1 to Lens on 22 May 2026. The idea was then for the club to assist Ben Arfa in rebuilding professional-level fitness before using him for short late-season appearances of 20, 30 or 40 minutes.
Any deal would have involved almost no salary, reflecting the financial restraint surrounding the club. However, internal concerns centred on whether Ben Arfa could reach the necessary physical condition after such a long absence from elite football.
Why the Nice return collapsed
Puel, who had returned to the Nice bench in December a decade after his first spell, was also wary of creating unrealistic expectations among supporters.
The coach eventually accepted the possibility only under strict conditions. Ben Arfa would either have had to prepare in Paris before joining the squad or begin with Nice’s reserve team in order to regain match rhythm.
The plan did not move forward. Ben Arfa was not prepared to spend months out of sight while working his way back after four years away from professional pitches, and the proposed reunion was abandoned.
