Arriving from Le Havre when Leicester City were still in the Championship, no one expected much from Riyad Mahrez.
However, the winger swiftly became an integral member of Nigel Pearson’s team, and was key to their return to the Premier League during the second half of the 2013-14 season, which they ended up winning two years later.
He quickly became something of an icon at King Power Stadium, scoring 48 goals and assisting another 38 in 179 games for the Foxes before moving to Manchester City in 2018 for £60m.
The Algeria international will always be part of Leicester’s history, but he nearly didn’t sign for them, revealing in an interview on Instagram Live with journalist Smaïl Bouabdellah he had no intention of going there at first.
He said, relayed by La Gazette du Fennec: “I grew up in France so I wanted to discover Ligue 1, it was my ambition. When my agents told me Leicester City were interested, I told myself ‘who are this rugby team?’ (laughs).
“At first, I told them I’m not going, it’s dead, what am I going to do in England? It’s not for me, too physical, but they insist, insist, insist… Therefore, I turned my phone off during the winter break in December telling myself they’re crazy, what do they want?”
Persistence, however, would pay off.
He continued: “When I returned to training in January and I realised Leicester were still after me. When we started talking wages etc… I immediately felt they really wanted me.
“At that point, I opened my laptop and for the first time I Googled Leicester City. I saw the stadium, the training facilities, the infrastructures and that’s when I thought it might be worth going.
“I spoke to my mum, because, you know, parents feel these things. They have this ability. Then, the president of Le Havre told me they desperately wanted to sell me. €600k, that was important for the club, so I told him OK, in that case I’ll leave.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Since his move to Manchester City, where he has played under Pep Guardiola, Mahrez has found the back of the net 21 times and assisted another 26 goals in 81 appearances in all competitions.
