Enemy No. 1 in Rome, Mehdi Benatia steps into lion's den looking to silence doubters

Rudi Garcia refused to answer questions about Mehdi Benatia on Monday. He had done enough of that already this summer. 

Back in August, it seemed the Roma manager could not get through a single conversation without somebody asking about the future of his star centre-back. “One day he’s 99% sold, the next he’s 99% staying,” joked Garcia at the time. “Yesterday I was searching for a replacement, but today I stopped because I read a story saying he would stay.”

A fortnight later, the player was 100% gone, joining Bayern Munich in a deal worth €26 million up front, plus €4 million in bonuses. On the face of it, that looked like some climbdown by Roma’s sporting director, Walter Sabatini. Three months earlier, he had told reporters the player was worth €61 million – €30 million for his left boot and another €31 million for the right. 

Since then, though, the relationship between player and club had soured. A few days before Sabatini spoke, Benatia had complained to Gazzetta dello Sport about his treatment by the club, claiming they had failed to deliver the big pay rise they promised him if Roma qualified for the Champions League. 

What happened next is the subject of dispute. After joining Bayern, Benatia gave an interview to the German sports magazine Kicker, in which he claimed to have been forced out of Roma. “Sabatini told me the club wanted to keep me, but that they needed to bring some money in, and therefore had to sell,” claimed the defender. “This made me angry because I wanted to stay.”

That version of events was furiously contested by the Giallorossi, whose owner, James Pallotta, released a statement accusing the player of “outright fabrications”. “We had a verbal agreement on compensation and a raise back in July in Boston,” asserted Pallotta. “He personally said to me that he was happy after I told him flat out with no exceptions that we wanted him to stay.

"Over the following month he lied about wanting to stay and about the details of his compensation to both Rudi Garcia and his teammates. Lying to me was one thing which I can somewhat handle. Lying to Rudi Garcia and his teammates was completely unacceptable to me. I told Walter Sabatini he was becoming a poison and I wanted him gone, and Rudi and Walter agreed.”

For Roma, the move has not worked out too badly. If they were frustrated to lose Benatia – and Garcia, remembering how his Lille side was dismantled after winning a league and cup double in France, might have been especially so – then they wasted no time acquiring a suitable replacement. 

It is too early to claim that Kostas Manolas is the equal of Benatia. The Moroccan was arguably the best defender in Serie A last season, beaten just nine times all season by an opponent’s dribble and averaging 2.8 interceptions per game. 

But at €13 million plus bonuses, Manolas certainly looks like value for money. Five clean sheets in seven Serie A games for Roma tell their own story. Fans’ fears that the Giallorossi could go the same way Udinese did immediately after selling Benatia – a team that had finished fourth, third and fifth with the defender, sank to 11th without – have been quickly set aside. 

None of which will make those Roma supporters any warmer towards Benatia when he shows up at the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday. They stuck up for him this summer, offering an ovation when he appeared at the club’s Open Day, one week before he was sold. His betrayal since will not be lightly forgiven. There was a crowd waiting to jeer him when Bayern arrived at their hotel in Rome on Monday. 

The reception will be far more ferocious at a sold-out Stadio Olimpico, where Benatia has plenty to prove. Injuries have restricted him to four appearances for Bayern so far, and the German newspaper Bild provocatively included him in their list of the Bundesliga’s biggest summer transfer window flops earlier this month. 

A strong performance against his former employers would go some way to winning over the doubters. He has been looking forward to the prospect. During his interview with Kicker last month, Benatia noted that, “In training I could not be too aggressive with [Francesco Totti] because we needed him for the league. This time it will be different.”

He would do well to remember that the same truth cuts both ways. With the likes of Gervinho, Juan Iturbe and Miralem Pjanic all fit and in form, he will have more than just Roma’s captain to worry about.