By Toby Prince
Riyad Mahrez scored his fourth goal of the season as Leicester City held Tottenham Hotspur to a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane on Saturday.
With the home side leading, Mahrez with all the canniness of a classic goal-poacher somehow shadows his way between two defenders, twisted and turned inside the box before unleashing a furious curling drive into the far corner to beat a helpless Hugo Lloris.
Dubbed the Algerian Messi, Mahrez has been superb, netting twice in the win over Sunderland and once against West Ham and Tottenham respectively. But it hasn’t just been the goals that have captured the imagination.
The 24-year-old also ranks in the top 10 for chances created and dribbles completed. Indeed, given that Mahrez’s signing came about with significant input from Leicester’s scouting department, those numbers might just be the most intriguing.
The Journey so far
His first club was amateur French club Quimper (before he turned pro in 2010-11) for whom he played a solitary season (2009–10) and scored a lone goal in 27 appearances.
The following season Mahrez’s professional career began at Le Havre’s second-team in Ligue 2, where he made a name for himself by scoring 24 goals in 60 appearances spanning over three seasons.
Though Mahrez did not exactly sparkle after joining the main Le Havre side in Ligue 1 (he scored a mere ten goals in 60 appearances) still his move to Leicester in 2013-14 was probably the start of something new.
Premier League break through
Rob Mackenzie, now at Tottenham, was the club’s head of technical scouting at the time and tells the story of how the winger found his way to the King Power Stadium, signing an initial three-and-half-year contract as the Foxes paid Le Havre £350,000 for the winger.
“In January (2014) we identified that we wanted to bring in a wide player,” Mackenzie told Sky Sports. “Maybe one who wouldn’t necessarily need to hit the ground running but someone who could challenge the guys we already had.
“So we went and looked around the second-tier options in reputable leagues like Spain, France and Germany as well as our own leagues. We also looked at the top divisions in places like Switzerland.
“We wanted someone whose contract was expiring in the summer because we thought there might be an opportunity to get them out for a smaller fee and we’d have more bargaining power.
“We were looking for an outstanding player in that league aged between 20 and 22. So we did all the statistical profiling and after the process we were able to sign Riyad Mahrez from Le Havre. He’s an example of a statistical process that resulted in a player.”
What the managers are saying
Former Leicester City boss, Nigel Pearson, spoke about the Algerian. “Riyad has had a very big learning curve in the past 18 months when you consider he joined from a small French club, coming into English football and a big change of culture,” he told the Leicester Mercury in May.
Current Leicester boss, Claudio Ranieri, had this to say about the player after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Tottenham: “Mahrez is important but all the team is very important. In this moment he is in great condition and he is very good for the team.
“His passing is good, his shooting is good and his ideas are good – that is important for all the team.
“But I am an Italian manager and I am interested also in how he defends, and he is getting better.
“He will improve and at the end he could be a very, very complete player.”
