Chris Byfield
AC Milan's routine 3-1 win over Frosinone last Saturday was elevated by a heartwarming subplot.
When Ismael Bennacer came off the bench in the game’s 79th minute, it marked the Algerian’s first taste of senior football in 206 days - having suffered a serious knee injury in the Rossoneri’s Champions League semi-final against Inter.
The life of a footballer is one of strict discipline - they train, they play, they recover - and for Bennacer, being deprived of that familiar rhythm was deeply jarring and painful.
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“Football is a big part of my life and it was the first time in my career that I was out for such a long amount of time," Bennacer told SPORTbible on his 26th birthday, the Friday before his Milan comeback. “To be injured for that amount of time, in one of the most important matches of my career, to tell the truth, it hurt.
“Especially recently, it’s been difficult seeing the team struggling. You want to be there to help your teammates. It was a new experience for me, but it’s a risk of the job.”
Bennacer arduously toiled in his recovery, documenting his troubles in a series of YouTube shorts called ‘Off The Pitch’, before finally being granted a precious 11 minutes of first-team action. He was a month ahead of schedule.
It was an arc reflective of the player’s career as a whole.
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Amiable and softly spoken, Bennacer said success had always come to him, “par la petite porte” - a French expression that loosely translates to: “Nothing has been given to me.”
Born and raised in the south of France’s coastal city of Arles, Bennacer moved to Arsenal in 2015 while still a teenager.
But what then appeared as a dream move, barely acts as a footnote in the pint-sized Algerian’s career.
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His time in north London lasted two years, featured a loan spell at Ligue 2 French side Tours FC and a solitary Arsenal first-team appearance.
“I went to Arsenal to develop and have a technical education,” Bennacer explained. “But I’m someone who wants to play - I wasn’t yet 19 but I was eager to play. Even at Arsenal, my goal wasn’t to play in the reserve team but the first team. I wasn’t given that opportunity but it was a positive experience that helped me in my career.”
Arsenal’s loss was Empoli’s gain.
The Italian side spent €1million (£860,000) on the Algerian, only to sell him to Milan two years later for a €16million (£13.7million) profit - a price hike partly credited to the then-21-year-old winning and being named Player of the Tournament at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
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Relatively new to the Algeria set-up, his metronomic performances saw him beat team-mate Riyad Mahrez and the likes of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Kalidou Koulibaly to that accolade.
However, Bennacer’s transfer from the peripheries of Italian football to AC Milan, one of European football’s most famous institutions, was not quite as seamless.
The Rossoneri faithful were not immediately stirred by the prospect of a relatively unknown midfielder being deployed as their Andrea Pirlo-style regista and at first, Bennacer struggled to bear the weight of the Milan shirt.
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He was naive and in need of greater care in his game, as evidenced when he gave away a couple of penalties in a 3-1 home defeat to Fiorentina.
Bennacer explained: “The [struggle] has been part of my life. I’m always underestimated. It’s the world of football. I arrived from Empoli. The fans didn’t know me. But it gave me the desire to prove them wrong. It pushed me to overcome the odds.
“I knew that when I arrived the criticism would not cause me any problems. On the contrary, I was determined for everyone to see my quality and even now, every training session, every game I want to do everything so people do not forget what I have to offer.”
As the months passed, Bennacer matured to become his team’s ball-winner and primary playmaker.
Within a season, Milan’s new-look side, featuring Rafael Leao’s skill, Fikayo Tomori’s bite and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s aura, was pulsing to Bennacer’s beat.
The Algerian acted as his team’s Prime Mover as Milan claimed their 19th Scudetto in 2021/22, some ten years after their last league title.
It was a moment of joy, relief and catharsis for a club that had spent a decade floundering in Italian football’s middle class; it also marked Bennaccer's accession from prospect to star.
Naturally, such stardom sparks speculation. The Algerian’s impressive displays have led to bi-annual links with an Arsenal return.
Despite signing a new four-and-a-half-year deal at Milan in January, the summer saw various Italian publications report the Gunners' interest. Liverpool and Manchester City were also said to be keen.
But having journeyed to the summit of Italian football, would Bennacer even be interested in a return to the Premier League?
“It’s true that Arsenal are among the clubs close to my heart. Arsenal and Milan have many similarities in terms of the organisation and the fact they are family clubs," he explained.
“The Premier League is a very big competition and anyone would want to play there. But Milan is also a massive club and I feel very, very happy here.
“I’m someone who always likes to have targets for the future, but there are lots of things I still want to achieve with Milan. We’ll see.”
The midfielder chuckled when it was cynically suggested he would thrive alongside the Gunners’ Declan Rice, diplomatically adding: “Arsenal is definitely a great team, with a great philosophy, that has evolved with some great players, but like I said I’m at Milan and I’m very, very happy.”
While a return to north London would feel like a satisfying, cyclical conclusion to Bennacer's story, for now his only focus is on re-entrenching himself in Milan’s midfield.
“First I want to be ready for Milan and for myself,” he said.