In the middle of a survival fight, OGC Nice briefly considered reaching back into one of the club’s brightest recent memories. Hatem Ben Arfa, now 39 and out of professional football since 2022, was sounded out over a remarkable return during the January transfer window.
A familiar face considered for a rescue mission
The idea emerged after Jean-Pierre Rivère returned as Nice president in December 2025, with the club caught in a serious crisis. His first major move was to bring Claude Puel back to the bench, almost a decade after the coach’s first successful spell in charge.
Puel managed Nice between 2012 and 2016, a period capped by fourth place in Ligue 1 in 2015-16. Ben Arfa was the central attacking figure in that campaign, producing the most complete season of his career.
- Ben Arfa scored 18 goals and supplied seven assists in 37 matches for Nice in 2015-16.
- The former France international has won 15 caps and scored twice for his country.
- He has not played for a professional club since leaving Lille in 2022.
- Ben Arfa has not formally announced his retirement.
Rivère explored whether the former Nice star could be helped back towards match fitness before contributing in short late-season appearances. The proposal was for the club to support his physical preparation, then use him for spells of 20, 30 or 40 minutes if he became ready.
The hoped-for reward was not only help in the relegation battle but also a possible push towards the Coupe de France. Any deal would have involved virtually no salary.
Puel feared an impossible weight of expectation
The proposal generated reservations inside the club, and Puel was unconvinced that such a gamble suited a side fighting for every point. He accepted that assessing Ben Arfa’s physical level was possible, but warned that the emotional pull of a reunion could quickly become damaging.
“I was open to seeing where he stood physically after being away from the game for so long, even though he had been playing padel,” Puel said.
Ben Arfa has remained active away from football and is reportedly among France’s top 750 padel players. Yet Puel felt that was not enough certainty for a relegation battle.
- Puel believed Nice needed reliable options while their Ligue 1 status was at stake.
- He feared a Ben Arfa comeback could unsettle the squad.
- He also warned that supporters’ expectations could become overwhelming if the return did not work.
- The former Nice coach felt the club had to avoid waiting for a miracle.
“When you are battling to stay up and every point matters, you need a degree of certainty,” Puel said. “It could have been catastrophic for the group, and awful for the supporters because of the expectation his return would have created.
“It was a risk that could have dragged the club down. Jean-Pierre likes those kinds of moves and has made decisions like that which have unlocked situations before. But this was not the right moment for that risk; it could have had disastrous consequences. The collective interest was to stay focused rather than expect a miracle.”
Nice chose caution over nostalgia
The prospect of Ben Arfa in red and black again carried obvious sentiment. His 2015-16 season remains one of the defining individual campaigns of Nice’s modern era, while Puel’s return to the club was itself rooted in that successful period.
But with the team under pressure at the bottom end of Ligue 1, the plan went no further. Nice opted against placing their fight for survival, and the hopes of their supporters, on the fitness of a player who had spent several years away from the professional game.
