By Ged Barnes
In this disturbing age of stratospheric transfer fees, elevated player egos, parasitic ‘super agents’ and Jose Mourinho, Riyad Mahrez has proved to be a breath of fresh air since arriving on English soil in January 2014.
One of the driving forces behind Leicester City’s phenomenal – and surprising –season, the Algerian international has caught the eye of some of the biggest clubs in the world with his exciting displays in the Premier League.
Mahrez is a rarity; a player whose popularity extends beyond the tribal confines of his own team’s supporters. The 25-year-old has many admirers, not least those who opted to place the wiry winger in their fantasy football teams at the beginning of the season, though it’s not just his talent on the pitch that commands respect.
When Mahrez was 15, his father died of a heart attack. He was just 54. Spurred on by this personal tragedy, the youngster ensured that he made the absolute most of his natural abilities with a football.
There were concerns during Mahrez’s early career that he lacked the physical presence to excel at the highest level, and that he would be bullied by bigger players in bigger leagues.
Mahrez allayed those fears by ensuring his speed and skill would simply take him away from those more robust than he; if they couldn’t catch him, then they couldn’t hurt him.
Before joining Leicester, Mahrez represented Le Havre in the French Ligue 2. As a youth player, he spurned the advances of both Paris St Germain and Marseille in order to learn his trade at Le Havre’s revered youth academy.
He scored 26 goals in 60 appearances for Le Havre’s reserves – ingeniously named Le Havre II – from 2010 to 2013, though he wasn’t quite as prolific for the first team.
He scored just ten goals in 67 matches in all competitions, and managed just six in the league. The reasons for leaving Le Havre earned him more brownie points amongst football purists, as he criticised the defensive nature of the French league. Mahrez was unhappy with the amount of teams happy to play out goalless draws, a gripe he presumably still holds against Louis Van Gaal’s Manchester United.
Nigel Pearson’s Leicester offered Mahrez the chance to ply his trade in English football during the second half of the 2013/14 campaign. The winger scored three times in 19 appearances, helping Leicester return to the Premier League for the first time in ten years as Championship winners.
Mahrez started slowly in the Premier League, and concerns about his strength soon resurfaced. It was rumoured that his family and friends believed he was more suited to Spanish football before his move to Leicester, but his sheer determination to succeed ensured that he ended his first season in the Premier League with four goals and three assists in his 30 appearances.
Leicester won seven of their last nine games during the 2014/15 season and, while not enough to save Pearson’s job, ensured that the Foxes defied all the odds and avoided relegation back into the Championship.
Jamie Vardy has quite rightly been lauded for his goalscoring exploits this season, but Mahrez is still regarded by many as Leicester’s most influential player so far this term.
Vardy has been in red-hot form, breaking the record for scoring in consecutive Premier League matches (11), but the fact that he has only been their second best player goes to show just how electric his team-mate has been.
Mahrez had bagged 16 goals in 30 appearances at the time of writing, 15 of those in the league. He also became the first Algerian to score a hat-trick in the Premier League when, on December 5, Leicester defeated Swansea 3-0 to – unbelievably – go top of the table.
Manager Claudio Ranieri can take a lot of credit for the form of Mahrez and Vardy, after allowing his flair players to play with expression and freedom not seen under the stewardship of Pearson.
Many wrote Ranieri off when he was installed as manager last summer, but the Italian has proved them all wrong – and then some. Leicester’s form, along with that of Mahrez and Vardy, has been the story of English football but after their battle to be crowned champions is over, the battle to keep their star players begins.
It’s only natural for Mahrez to take the next step up the career ladder of professional football and if the talented 24-year-old eventually makes the grade at one of the world’s top teams, there will be few who can begrudge him.
If Leicester do the unthinkable and win a place in the Champions League next year, however, then Mahrez may yet remain a firm favourite at the King Power Stadium, for a little while longer at least.
