Still present in the National Team at the start of the Djamel Belmadi era, Yassine Benzia is today in a situation of total failure.
What a pity! These two words can sum up the careers of many fallen football hopefuls, as certain signals seemed to announce the arrival of great talents.
Among them, of course, Yassine Benzia. Trained at Olympique Lyonnais, he embodied Gone success par excellence by shining in the youth categories, especially with the French team. He will thus finish top scorer of the U17 World Cup in 2011.
If he has since chosen Algeria and led an honest career (Lyon, Lille, Fenerbahçe, Olympiakos), Benzia is not up to his talent. His transfer to Dijon attested to this, and his serious quad accident which might have amputated a finger unfortunately did not help him to regain his level.
On loan last season to Hatayspor, where he rubbed shoulders with his compatriot Mehdi Boudjemaa, Yassine Benzia has since returned to Dijon. Yet one of the best players in the squad, the international (4 caps, 1 goal) has not played a single minute this season. His trainer, Omar Daf, explains that it is his contractual situation, his lease ending in 2023, which is in question: “He’s a very good player. When I arrived, players were in the process of leaving and had expressed the wish to leave. It was his case. My role is to train. He made a choice and he is with the reserve. It is all the more complicated since he did not participate in a match. Physically, he is very far. This is unfortunate and unfortunate for us.»
DZfoot