The only player to emerge from Saint-Étienne’s car crash of a season relatively unscathed, Wahbi Khazri has wasted no time in finding himself a move that has kept him in the French top flight soon after Les Verts were unceremoniously relegated to Ligue 2.
With the World Cup in view, Tunisia’s captain and the most recognisable player was intent on staying in the limelight ahead of his second crack at making an impact on the world stage this winter. At Montpellier, though, the attacker has struggled to rediscover the form that saw him hit ten goals in his former team’s ill-fated 2021/22 campaign. Those strikes – including a lob from beyond midfield against Metz that was bafflingly overlooked for goal of the season – were largely the only reprieve at a club mired in ownership turmoil off the pitch while being equally directionless on it.
Previously, Khazri had helped take formative club Bastia up from the French third tier to Ligue 1, before a move to Bordeaux saw him embrace the big stage, notably finding the net in a draw against Paris Saint-Germain, one of his 15 goals in a season and a half for the Marine et Blanc which earned him a move to England and then-Premier League club Sunderland.
One of various former Stéphanois to have jumped ship to La Paillade this summer, Khazri ostensibly had his mind on the World Cup for a while, his only performance of note coming in Montpellier’s freak 7-0 win over Brest at the end of August. Just two goals and one assist so far this season across 11 games – including one at the Parc des Princes – evidence of how unsuccessful the Tunisian has been in wresting a slice of control over the attack away from Montpellier captain and talisman Téji Savanier, even if the latter has hardly been at his best this campaign either.
Current form aside, though, Khazri’s close control, deceptively devastating dribbling ability and efficiency from long range have undoubtedly made him one of the more exciting players to watch from outside Ligue 1’s top teams over recent years. Inconsistency, indiscipline and insouciance may well have cost him a place in the upper reaches of French football, but the attacker does fit the role of the talismanic underdog band leader like a glove.
One aspect he can’t be faulted on in recent times is his commitment to the cause, though, as evidenced by the versatile attacker making the top 5% of forwards from across Europe’s top five leagues for interceptions and the top 3% for tackles over the last year, which has helped him win over the Hérault faithful.
He may not have set the world alight in his sole wander outside of French football, the middling two-year spell at the Stadium of Light, but Khazri does have some international pedigree as his country’s long-term captain. The number ten and most prominent player for the Eagles of Carthage over the last few years travelled to Qatar with a record of 24 goals in 71 caps since making his debut back in 2013.
However, Khazri was surprisingly forced out of the first team at the World Cup, as he shared the stage with the team’s other attacking hero, Youssef Msakni, who was included in Jalel Kadri’s party after missing the 2018 edition with injury. However, facing his country of birth, France, in the final group stage match, Khazri provided what turned out to be his international footballing cameo by scoring the winner against an understrength Les Bleus side, putting Tunisia in a promising position to make it out of Group D.
In Russia, the forward scored twice, including the winner against Panama, his country’s first victory at a World Cup since their first appearance as an independent country in 1978. However, Australia’s shock win over Denmark in Qatar denied the Carthage Eagles a first-ever game in the tournament’s last 16 but Khazri’s final international goal, to beat a team Tunisia share an often fierce rivalry with, will become one of the country’s most memorable international footballing moments.
Having spearheaded the North Africans to their sixth World Cup berth – albeit missing the decisive play-off against Mali owing to injury – Khazri knows all about bearing the bulk of a team’s hopes on his shoulders, for both club and country. Whether he can impress enough this season to justify another move across the Channel remains to be seen, but the Corsica native will in any case be keen to show there’s a bit more about him than his time in the north-east of England let on.
Despite having retired from international football at 31 following Tunisia’s exit from the World Cup in Qatar, a skilful goalscorer and creator, Khazri has much to offer Montpellier over the next few seasons. However, where exactly he fits in at MHSC under the new coach following the removal of Olivier Dall’Oglio will be an interesting sub-plot to the second half of the Ligue 1 season and will likely determine the final trajectory of one of Ligue 1’s more consistent attacking performers of recent years.
Raphaël Jucobin | GFFN