After captaining Algeria to victory at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (CAN), Riyad Mahrez will arrive at the 2021 tournament aiming to pull off a historic double. This would cap an astonishing career that has seen the Manchester City winger\u2019s talent bloom \u2013 despite an inauspicious start at local minnows AAS Sarcelles and\u00a0without any training at a prestigious club\u2019s academy.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s rare for players to have a stadium named after them during their lifetime. But at the Nelson Mandela Sports Centre in Sarcelles \u2013 a suburb north of\u00a0Paris<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a stadium is named for one of the area\u2019s most cherished products: Riyad Mahrez,\u00a0Manchester City<\/a>\u00a0star and captain of the\u00a0Algeria<\/a>\u00a0team that won CAN-19.<\/p>\n Mahrez achieved this renown despite an unusual start to his career. Unlike many players of his calibre growing up in Europe, he did not start out at the academy of a storied club.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly one person believed in Mahrez\u2019s future success, and that was Riyad himself,\u201d Hayel Mbemba, a former teammate at AAS Sarcelles, the obscure French team where Mahrez played as a teenager. \u201cHis strength of character is decidedly above average,\u201d Mbemba told AFP.<\/p>\n The 30-year-old Mahrez\u2019s footballing story begins at this\u00a0local club he joined at the age of 12. Despite playing for hours on end, Mahrez was seen by recruiters as just an average player. For all his technical mastery, his slender physique was not a draw for top talent scouts.<\/p>\n \u201cInitially the quality of his technique allowed him to get by well,\u201d Mohamed Coulibaly, technical director of AAS Sarcelles, told AFP. \u201cBut it was difficult when he switched to 11-a-side football; it was more complicated for him, because as teenage boys go he was late to develop physically from the age of\u00a012\u00a0to\u00a016.\u00a0He was small and didn\u2019t have the physical qualities necessary for the game, so he found it hard for three or four years. He was playing in the reserve team. There were\u00a0the championships for\u00a014-year-olds\u00a0at that point \u2013 it was the highest level in France at that age category. Players in that tournament got great visibility, so the really promising ones could join professional clubs. But Mahrez didn\u2019t grab their attention.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahrez persisted in the face of adversity. He would tell everyone who listened that he would play at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. His trainers responded: \u201cYou can\u2019t even play for Sarcelles!\u201d Coulibaly told AFP.<\/p>\n But Mahrez\u2019s flourishing self-confidence eventually paid off. His physical development eventually caught up with that of his peers. He ended up becoming a mainstay of the AAS Sarcelles first team \u2013 and then something of a star. All the while, Mahrez never stopped pursuing his dream of breaking through as a professional, regularly jumping on planes and trains to carry out tests across Europe.<\/p>\n He finally got a break at 18, signing with Quimper, a Breton club in France\u2019s fourth division. This was the start of Mahrez\u2019s inexorable ascent. The following year he moved to Ligue 1 side Le Havre.<\/p>\n Mahrez\u2019s impressive performances in Normandy attracted the attention of English\u00a0sides;\u00a0in 2014 he signed for Leicester City, then playing in the Championship, the English second division.\u00a0At first\u00a0he was reluctant, but after consulting with friends in Sarcelles he decided to cross the Channel.<\/p>\n But\u00a0Leicester turned out to be an inspired choice. They soon won promotion to the Premier League and \u2013 under\u00a0acclaimed\u00a0manager Claudio Ranieri \u2013 pulled off the unbelievable achievement of clinching the title in 2016, triumphing over England\u2019s big six.<\/p>\n It was a series of stellar performances, which helped\u00a0power humdrum Leicester into the footballing stratosphere,\u00a0that won Mahrez the attention of Europe\u2019s biggest clubs. In 2018, he signed for Pep Guardiola\u2019s Manchester City juggernaut,\u00a0winning the 2019 and 2021 Premiership titles.<\/p>\n With both French and Algerian citizenship, Mahrez chose to represent Algeria,\u00a0his parents\u2019 country of origin. Mahrez got his first cap aged 23, while Algeria were on the qualification route for the 2014 World Cup. Algeria’s then manager Vahid Halilhodzic was impressed by his talent and called him up for the tournament in Brazil \u2013 vindicating Mahrez against the doubters who ridiculed his dream. The vindication was especially sweet\u00a0when\u00a0the unfancied Algeria side progressed to the knockout stages, crashing out only against Germany, the team\u00a0that\u00a0went on to win the tournament.<\/p>\n Five years later, Mahrez lifted the CAN trophy wearing the captain\u2019s armband as Algeria triumphed over Egypt in the final \u2013 after a particularly impressive semi-final performance against Nigeria, with two goals including a spectacular free kick in extra-time.<\/p>\n For all his success and fame, Mahrez never forgot his roots. Shortly after his success at CAN-19, he returned to Sarcelles,\u00a0where Mayor Patrick Haddad bestowed him with the town medal, as his proud mother looked on.<\/p>\n It was \u201conly natural\u201d to give Mahrez the medal, Haddad said. \u201cHe represents an exemplary form of success and he is a great representative of Sarcelles. That\u2019s why we wanted to give a kind of formal recognition of our pride in his career \u2013 which shows everyone, especially young people growing up here, what can be achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n For all his success, Mahrez remains a \u201clocal boy\u201d at heart, Haddad added.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Man City star remains active in the local community, regularly inviting young AAS Sarcelles players to Manchester to watch his club play.<\/p>\n\u2018You can\u2019t even play for Sarcelles!\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Fierce motivation\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n