Transfer news: Riyad Mahrez joins Manchester City for club-record fee

The former PFA Player of the Year has completed his move to the Premier League champions. Mahrez becomes City’s most expensive player.

Riyad Mahrez has officially joined the EPL champions Manchester City for a club-record fee of €60million. The Algerian now makes City the overwhelming favorites to repeat as Premier League champions. Mahrez finishes his Leicester City career with 179 appearances and 48 goals. 18 of those goals came in his title-winning season for Leicester City, where he also won the 2015-16 PFA Player of the year award.

A remarkable journey for Mahrez

At 27 years old, Riyad Mahrez has had an incredible rise in his football career. Just 5 years ago, Mahrez was barely featured for Ligue 2 side Le Havre, scoring two goals in 17 appearances in the league in 2013-14. Leicester than bought Mahrez for €450k while still in the Championship. Mahrez exceeded his transfer value by 100 times with his play in Leicester’s remarkable title-winning season of 2015-16.

After barely playing in Ligue 2 and ascending to the top of the EPL with Leicester City, Mahrez is now the most expensive player in Manchester City history. His career is one of the most unique in sports and his rise in quality and price is nothing short of remarkable.

The addition of Mahrez adds a ridiculous amount of depth to the Citizens’ attacking options. Now with Mahrez, Sterling, Sane, De Bruyne, Aguero, Bernardo Silva, David Silva, and Jesus, City can easily win the league and are legitimate Champions League contenders. Riyad Mahrez can start for Pep Guardiola’s side by the time they play Arsenal in their opening game on August 12th.

Leicester will become a steady EPL team

With an extra €60million in the bank for Leicester, they should not get relegated for another five to seven years. N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez cost Leicester a little more than €9million when they were brought to the King Power Stadium. They were sold for just over €90million. Leicester can make that number bigger if they are willing to sell Jamie Vardy and if Harry Maguire gets bought for a big price tag after the World Cup.

Next: Jack Wilshere signs with West Ham

This money has already been used to buy some exceptional, mid-table talent. Iheanacho, Musa, Slimani, Iborra, Ndidi, and more make Leicester a top-ten team. Now, with even more money to spend, the Foxes are in an incredible position to become a steady Premier League team and no longer stay down in the Championship for consecutive seasons.