In the end, Hatem Ben Arfa was not the headline-maker on the visit to his former club, Lyon, with his current one, Nice, in a crucial Ligue 1 game last Friday night. There were moments when he could have beenwhen he scythed an effort just past the far post towards the end of the first half or when he lifted a delicious second-half chip high over Anthony Lopes but just wide.His coach, Claude Puel (also returning to a club he left in acrimonious circumstances), cursed his side's luck on the touchline and in the press conference afterwards, as the chance to leapfrog Lyon in a breathtakingly close race for a Champions League place slipped away following Alexandre Lacazette's late equaliser for the 10-man hosts.As he spoke of "two lost points" (via L'Equipe in French), Puel also wondered aloud if the particular feeling of going back to the club that launched Ben Arfa had gotten to his star man, at least a bit, saying he seemed "tense."Given that Ben Arfa had twice been a couple of feet away from bring the house down, it seemed overly harsh. Then again, his form this season has left you expectingrather than hoping forthe extraordinary.Firstly, there are the raw numbers. Ben Arfa has scored 16 times already this season. Only Lacazette and (of course) Zlatan Ibrahimovic have scored more than him in Ligue 1 this season. When you consider Ben Arfa's previous highest tally in a league seasonin either France or Englandwas six, it becomes even more astonishing.He has contributed three assists as well, but the stats don't come close to conveying the full extent of Ben Arfa's majesty this season. He has transformed Nice from an average side into a must-watch, bold and brave with verve to spare.You may well have seen some of the goals, too. Among the tally are great hits with that lethal left foot and just conclusions to typical Ben Arfa slaloms through swathes of befuddled defenders, like the example below (via Ligue 1). The swagger is back, but a new efficiency has accompanied it. Ben Arfa has not just transformed Nice. He has transformed himself.That Ben Arfa is enjoying the sort of season his talent (and his occasionally expressed internal monologue) has always hinted should be a formality now is perhaps curious, in the season in which he has turned 29 years old. Yet this past 18 months in an always colourful career have not just seen one penny, but a whole sackful of them drop for Ben Arfa.We might have convinced ourselves he'd gotten to this point before. After the bust-ups that precipitated his departures from Lyon and Marseille (both clubs at which he was a title winner before we get too hung up on the "wasted talent" line), it initially seemed Newcastle had allowed him to get his head straight.A serious injury suffered in just his fourth game for the Toon after a brutal challenge by Nigel de Jong had cut him down, but as he later reflected, it gave him the opportunity to "move on and mature" away from the limelight (as told to L'Equipe, via Marcus Christenson of the Guardian). Having been habitually combustible, Ben Arfa started to question himself and his way of doing things.At the time, he'd gotten into the ritual of stopping for breakfast at Newcastle's palatial Jesmond Dene Hotel before carrying on to training. While enjoying those moments of peace, overlooking the valley where the Ouseburn flows, far away from the bustle of the centre, he continued his new-found penchant for reflection. It was at the hotel that he gave L'Equipe that extended audience, in which he suggested his (by his own admission) brattish behaviour earlier in his career was perhaps due to the fact "my father never told me that he loved me."There was never any chance of a surrogate replacement in Alan Pardew, who seemed equally fascinated and confused by the complex talent in front of him. Ben Arfa was committed to giving it a go, saying in the same interview he was willing to "submit to his authority," but the manager genuinely didn't understand, often sticking him on the right wing of a 4-4-2 and wondering why it didn't work.Mutual frustration eventually brought the worst of out of both men, and after signing him on loan at the last minute in the summer 2014 transfer window, Hull bore the brunt of Ben Arfa's slip back into his old ways.Again, it was a jolt that shook him back to his bestanother reminder of his footballing mortality, albeit a quite different sort to the one that cut him down in Manchester back in 2011. The authorities' refusal to ratify his move to Nice initially in February 2015 devastated him, and his advisor, Jean-Jacques Bertrand, claimed in the immediate aftermath he might even be pushed to retire (via Ian Holyman of ESPN FC), something the player himself later dismissed, perhaps after taking time to reflect.Ben Arfa's decision to reward Nice's faith and take up with them when permitted to do so has proved to be a very wise one. His current hot streak (he hit a sensational hat-trick against another European rival, Rennes, last week) has been helped by the personnel around him. Perhaps predictably, he has looked best playing as a number 10 behind the intelligent front pair of Valere Germain and fellow Lyon product Alassane Plea in what is globally a very attacking team.Even if he does quit when his contract ends at the season's end, all parties will have done well from it. Nice will almost certainly have been returned to European competition (their continental involvement in recent years stretches to just one failed Europa League playoff2013since 1997), and Ben Arfa's career will have been relaunched.One possible next stop is Paris Saint-Germain (as reported by Eurosport.fr), though one has to wonder how the capital native would cope with not being an automatic choice. Milan and Dortmund have also been credited with an interest. Lyon presidential adviser Bernard Lacombe, who remains close to Ben Arfa, even evoked the "dream" of welcoming the prodigal son home in the days leading up to Friday's game (in Le Figaro here, quoting L'Equipe).Wherever he goes, Ben Arfa will hope it is off the back of a successful Euro 2016. It seems like a long shot after Didier Deschamps left him out of France's recent friendlies with the Netherlands.Not that Ben Arfa is giving up."I'm going to give everything on the pitch until (the end of the season)," he said after his hat-trick against Rennes (via ESPN FC's Mark Rodden, again quoting L'Equipe). "As long as there is hope, I believe."When Ben Arfa really believes, it seems like most things are possible. At the very least, he is a privilege to watch again, and that is not a pleasure to be undervalued.
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