By David Whitworth | @DCWh1tw0rth
Spanish side Real Betis Balompié captured arguably one of the bargain transfer deals of last summer when they signed the talented French and Algerian attacker Nabil Fekir from Lyon.
The attacking midfielder, soon to be 27 this July, penned a four year deal with Los Verdiblancos. It was an eye-catching deal worth just £17.7 million pounds, with an extra £8.9 million pounds in various performance related installments. It represented a notable coup for the Andalusians.
A World Cup winner with France just two years ago as the biggest feather in his cap, Fekir has a wealth of weaponry in his armory in terms of pure footballing skill. A gifted dead-ball specialist with an eye for the spectacular. (See his effort against Paris Saint-Germain for an exhibition in outstanding free kick delivery).
In Lyon’s third game of the 2017-18 French First Division season, he would brilliantly score from the halfway line against Bordeaux, showing the visionary and his fine ability with the ball. A player who brings an inventive style of play with his trickery and elusiveness being his forte – capable to wriggle out of small spaces still in total possession of the ball thanks to his intelligent awareness. A player with verticality, who likes to carry the ball from deep and maraud forward into the opposition box with his gift of a left wand.
A classy and cool finisher in one-on-one situations with the keeper, he also has a great knack of key assists with his creative killer-splitting defensive passes. His dynamism with his tremendous ability to dribble means he is a hit with supporters and with that he is able to conjure up an assist or goal from nothing. He is also a very versatile player – able to play in any of the attacking positions, be it left-wing, right-wing, attacking midfield, where he excels the most, a secondary striker and has experienced playing in the out-and-out strikers role.
Two years ago, Fekir almost become a Liverpool player – to the extent the player posed with the club’s shirt at a photo shoot and conducted an interview with Liverpool’s in house television channel. This all occurred before the deal fell through due to Liverpool’s intention to re-negotiate their original deal with Lyon of £53 million pounds after they found issues with a previous knee injury of his – that despite him passing all the requisite medical examinations.
The player, born and bread in Lyon and a product of their academy since the age of 12, played for six successful seasons at the Ligue 1 outfit, and was handed the captaincy for the last two seasons, bringing leadership as well as trickery. Fekir was part of their Champions League campaign last season – scoring with aplomb against Manchester City. Indeed, Fekir has a wealth of European experience with 30 appearances in both the Champions League and Europa League, scoring ten goals, with seven assists to his name to date.
In his time with the team known as The Kids, he appeared in 145 league matches, scoring 54 goals. An impressive ratio from the French marksman. Last season he scored nine goals in 29 league appearances however, his best season to date was the previous year – plundering 18 goals in just 29 games for his second double-figured haul of league goals of his career.
During his time in France, he was recognized by being named Ligue 1’s Young Player of the Year for the 2014-15 season and twice secured a place in the prestigious Ligue 1 Team of the Year, awarded in both the 2014/15 and 2017/18 seasons.
For whose who doubted Fekir’s ambition to swap a Champions League club with a team not in European action this season, bear in mind that Real Betis are a big club in their own right – housing the 4th largest stadium in La Liga with their Benito Villamarín a vast 60,721 capacity. Betis are also known to possess one of the most passionate supporters base in the country. Fekir arrived to a club where football goes beyond football – where football is a pure and passionate religion and emotive feeling, and its players are treated as royalty.
The deal for Fekir was also allied to the fact his younger brother, 22-year-old winger Yassin Fekir, joined the club too. Soon after, he was loaned out to third tier Guijuelo, a club based in Salamanca in the North of Spain.
On paper, the Nabil Fekir transfer represented a fantastic bit of business for Betis, who arguably found a ready made replacement for the outgoing Giovani Lo Celso to Tottenham Hotspur. However, the signing of the talented Frenchman should have softened the blow.
A lot of fan fair and excitement brought Nabi Fekir to Real Betis and his arrival was seen as him becoming the new jewel of the Betis crown.
Yet, it has been a frustrating campaign for the French international with only seven goals and seven assists in 25 appearances. Good statistics on paper but the attacker has flattered to deceive.
He made a flying start on his debut by scoring a terrific goal against Barcelona. What a way to cap off your debut scoring in the Camp Nou. The next game he scored again against Leganes and the Frenchman was performing as expected.
But since then, his form has tailed off alarmingly and has shown a distinct lack of discipline in many games both tactically and personally – he was sent off against Barcelona this past February.
There are several factors for his underperformance. Firstly, his club Real Betis have had a very poor season – currently languishing in 14th place and closer to the relegation places than their target of Europe. A club underachieving just like their new star.
In terms of Fekir, his best moments have come with a moment of individual brilliance rather than part of an impressive team move. For all his skills, he hasn’t taken the mantle of grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck and demonstrating the leadership he has shown in his Lyon days. In many matches he has been absent and the game has simply passed him by.
Another key factor has been that far too many times Fekir has been positioning himself too deep and not in dangerous enough positions on the edge of the box. His marauding runs are nice on the eye but he hasn’t put himself enough in those key areas to hurt the opposition. He has looked isolated and reliant on his individuals moments as he hasn’t integrated into the team’s pattern of play.
It is not all his fault as his team mates haven’t got the best out of him. Betis have shown themselves to be a collection of individuals with a lack of structure, organization and cohesion. From a tactical standpoint, there has been a lack of clinical vertical passes through to him. The possession has been pedestrian and players have ambled along with more horizontal passes which haven’t penetrated the rival.
As the season comes to a close, it is the clear the Nabil Fekir experiment clearly hasn’t worked so far. It remains to be seen whether the maverick signing will remain an enigma and a luxury to some extent or he will adapt to Spanish football and fully flourish on the La Liga stage.
The Investigation 🔍 