Benarbia grabbed the attention of district side
ROC Narbonne at only 10 years and seven years later he signed for
FC Martigues. Encouraged by his father, Benarbia wanted to have a professional career in the game but knew that it would only come through hard-work. Playing in the youth team, Benarbia was quickly promoted to the first team in 1987 and went on to help the club into the French first division after winning the second division title in 1993. He was part of the side that was promoted to
Ligue 1 in 1993, operating as a
midfielder.
Monaco After Martigues were relegated in 1995, Benarbia was signed by
AS Monaco and two seasons later he helped the club to a league title. In season 1997–98, he was named Player of the Year in the France but still no call came from the French coach. Bénarbia had turned down several offers to play for his home country of Algeria, as he had always hoped to play for France. Benarbia also played in
Jean Tigana's talented Monaco side which famously put
Manchester United out of the
Champions League in 1998 on away goals after a 1–1 draw at
Old Trafford.
Bordeaux After three seasons with AS Monaco, Benarbia moved to
Bordeaux for £1 million and helped the club, where
Zinedine Zidane made his name, to the league title. With Benarbia playing the best football of his career,
Paris Saint-Germain tabled an offer of £2 million for the Algerian player only a month before the end of the season. The club accepted but the deal was kept quiet until Bordeaux had clinched the title.
Paris Saint-Germain Benarbia was named captain of the PSG side, which featured Nigerian
Jay-Jay Okocha and later
Nicolas Anelka. The team failed to win anything, though they did manage to qualify for the second round of the
2000–01 UEFA Champions League, finishing last in their group with
Deportivo de La Coruña,
Galatasaray S.K. and
A.C. Milan.
Manchester City Benarbia left France in 2001 and was signed on a free transfer by
Manchester City, whose manager
Kevin Keegan was familiar with him from when he scored two goals for Monaco against Keegan's
Newcastle United. He became a firm favourite amongst the supporters as City won the
First Division and promotion back to the
Premier League, winning the club's player of the year award and being named in the select side for the Division. He was made captain the following season, although he found the pace of the Premier League harder and was much less influential in his second season. He played his final game in a City shirt in 2003 against
FC Barcelona in a game to mark the opening of the
City of Manchester Stadium, before announcing his retirement.
Al-Rayyan Only five days after this announcement, on 27 July 2003, Benarbia signed up to play for
Al-Rayyan of Qatar. After two years with the club, he moved on to play for
Nadi Qatar before announcing his retirement a year later. == International career ==