Leicester star Riyad Mahrez has been transformed from a slight schemer into a ruthless Premier League match-winner

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When Riyad Mahrez first appeared in Leicester training sessions displaying that ornate technique with which we are all now familiar, de facto referee Nigel Pearson would decline to award the little Algerian free-kicks even when warranted.

Practising 11 v 11, defenders might abruptly introduce Mahrez to the ways of English football if the newcomer dribbled the ball too long, but then-manager Pearson, or assistant Craig Shakespeare, were more than likely to wave play on.

‘It was cruel to be kind,’ recalls Kevin Phillips, who joined Leicester as a player days after Mahrez in January 2014 before becoming attacking coach last season. 

Leicester winger Riyad Mahrez has established himself as one of the club's key players this season 

The Algeria international has dazzled with his performances and the Foxes sit top of the league table

Mahrez was toughened up in training and is now able to cope with the physicality of the English game

‘If we’d have kept giving him foul after foul that’s what he would have expected at the weekend. We wanted to see a reaction.

‘To begin he was a bit sulky, but as time went on he learnt to deal with it. He grew to know when to pass or when to take someone on.’

There can be scant doubt Mahrez has formed a full understanding of his game now. As Jamie Vardy’s record-breaking run has justifiably hogged the spotlight, Mahrez’s own incredible campaign as been slightly overshadowed. 

But his hat-trick against Swansea last week demanded attention. Not only does he bless games with beguiling skill, he provides end product. 

He has so far scored 10 Premier League goals and provided six assists; an overall contribution bettered only by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (20), Neymar (19) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (18) in Europe’s top five leagues, while team-mate Vardy joins him on 16 goal contributions.

It is exalted company for a player who at 19 was still playing in a regional league in Paris; who six years ago was in tears at being told a non-league French side could no afford to offer him a contract; who before moving to England had not competed above Ligue 2.

His rise from obscurity and street-footballer style has echoes of Vardy’s and likewise indicates the savvy scouting team in place at Leicester. 

The fee paid to Le Havre for Mahrez was €450,000 (circa £320,00). Two years later he is worth many multiples of that figure.

Head of recruitment Steve Walsh saw past the slight frame weighing less than 10st, to resolve the talent within was worthy of pursuing and Leicester are reaping the benefits.

Doubts about a sinewy 5ft 10in stature have followed Mahrez throughout his career, right back to the beginning. He was raised in Sarcelles, a neighbourhood in northern Paris of housing estates and a relatively rough reputation, to an Algerian father and Moroccan mother.

Mahrez celebrates with the match ball after scoring a hat-trick in the 3-0 win over Swansea City 

Mahrez has come a long way since signing for Leicester from Le Havre in 2014 

Possessing natural ability with the ball, Mahrez joined his local amateur team AAS Sarcelles as a child, but was deemed underdeveloped physically, according to director Mohamed Coulibaly. 

‘At the beginning, he managed to do well with his technique. But when he joined the 11s side, it was a bit more complicated for him. He was very frail,’ explained Coulibaly to French football magazine So Foot this year.

Aged 15, Mahrez lost his father and inspiration Ahmed, who suffered from a heart condition. ‘My dad was always behind me,’ Mahrez told The Guardian in September. 

‘He played before for small teams in Algeria and France so he knew what he was saying. I don’t know if I started to be more serious but after the death of my dad things started to go for me. Maybe in my head I wanted it more.’

Friends remember Mahrez praying and visiting his mosque frequently at the time. ‘My mum was alone after that,’ Mahrez told the BBC this week. ‘It was difficult. But that’s helped me to be more strong.’

Mahrez has scored 10 Premier League goals this season, while also providing six assists 

Mahrez's stunning attacking statistics this season are some of the best in Europe's top five leagues 

He became resilient on the pitch too, and at 17 earned a place in the Sarcelles first-team. ‘His left foot was like his hand,’ said Guy Ngongolo, his then manager. 

‘He always had a ball with him. He never stopped. There is a gymnasium at the club and he was very often staying late, sometimes until 4am. He just loves football too much. Even when he played on Friday night with Le Havre, he returned to Sarcelles to play the next day with his buddies.’

Nzete Ate, former general manager at Sarcelles added: ‘My sister used to live in the same building as Riyad, and each time I was around I could see him with a ball. Either at 9pm, 10pm or 11pm, he was playing, very often against the walls with one of his friends.’

Phillips, now assistant manager at Derby County, recognises those tales. ‘When I went into coaching the amount of times I had to tell him to go home or leave the ball alone, because he’s a kid who just loves football,’ he says. ‘It is refreshing to see.’

By 18, Mahrez’s performances attracted interest from bigger clubs and he travelled for a trial at Quimper, a quasi-professional team from the fourth tier of French football based in Brittany.

‘He blew our mind,’ enthused Ronan Salaun, Quimper coach, to L’Equipe last year. ‘I told him that the club couldn’t afford to pay him a contract, and he started to cry. It touched me as he was a kid full of ambition, who wanted to succeed, so I convinced my leaders.

‘We were unsure at the beginning about his physique, we thought he would be eaten alive! But it was never an issue for him. His size, his height are deceptive.’

 Mahrez's genuine thirst for football and work-rate have earned him rave reviews from his coaches 

Mahrez's incredible rise from obscurity is testimony to the scouting system in place at Leicester 

During his season at Quimper, Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille made enquiries but Mahrez reasoned he would get greater opportunities to play by moving to Le Havre of Ligue 2, the club Paul Pogba had left for Manchester United a year earlier. Initially appearing for their second string, he progressed to the first team in 2011.

‘There is a stereotype for the football players, and he is just not a stereotype,’ Le Havre chairman Jean-Pierre Louvel told L’Equipe. ‘He has a real inner strength.’

This is where Walsh comes in. ‘The first time I saw him was July 27, 2012 when Le Havre played against Arles-Avignon,’ Walsh tells Sportsmail. ‘That was a French second division game. I had actually gone to watch Ryan Mendes, who has joined Nottingham Forest on loan from Lille.

‘Riyad was a bit raw but he had a great touch, he could kill the ball dead and go past people. I liked his positiveness. He would take the ball to the fullback rather than lounging towards him. He would go with pace, commit the defender, and either cross the ball or have a go at getting past him.

‘Some of his decision-making wasn’t great and also defensively he wasn’t the best. But you could see he had real talent. We had him monitored from then on in.’

Mahrez, pictured here at Upton Park, tussles for possession with Cameroon international Alex Song

David Mills, Leicester’s chief scout, crossed the Channel to observe Mahrez a couple of times before Walsh was joined by Rob Mackenzie, then the club’s head of technical scouting now at Tottenham, for Le Havre’s game against Auxerre on December 20, 2013. ‘That’s when we thought: “We need to do this”,’ recalls Walsh.

In an example of how old-school methods and new technology can alloy together in recruitment, Mackenzie’s team had also generated their own in-house statistics on a trio of targets from Ligue 2 and Bundesliga 2 as data was unavailable for those leagues. In Christmas 2013 they used a small sample of games available on video firm Wyscout to code the players’ actions using specialised software, with Mahrez emerging on top.

Importantly too, Leicester gauged a positive impression of his personality from contacts and made their move, a low transfer fee aided by just six months remaining on his contract.

‘He didn’t really know where Leicester was, like a lot of foreign players, but when he came over he was blown away by the facilities,’ says Walsh.

Mahrez held long-term ambitions of playing for Algeria, the country of his heart, at the 2014 World Cup and reasoned a move to the Championship leaders would boost his claims. Indeed, he made his international debut that May having scored three goals in an impressive five months. The day before his flight to Brazil, he went made a poignant trip back to Sarcelles to catch up with former teammates and coaches.

Mahrez has formed an effective attacking partnership with former non-league star Jamie Vardy this term 

His English was scarce at first, but player liaison officer Jon Saunders helped him settle and find an apartment, while Anthony Knockaert, Leicester’s other French player, offer friendship despite being under threat from the new arrival. 

‘You have to give credit to Anthony because Riyad was there to take his place,’ Phillips tells Sportsmail. ‘He helped him off the pitch, they did everything together. I think they still remain good friends.’

Walsh adds: ‘Each player at the club gets a individual fitness programme. Part of Riyad’s is to do weights. Don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t go in pumping iron but he is certainly stronger than he was when he came. The fitness people at the club, such as Matty Reeves (head of conditioning), do a great job.

‘Riyad can last the full match and has to be aerobically fit to do both sides of the game: attacking and defence. But we never want to stifle that creativity.’

Mahrez signed a new contract extension in the summer, keeping him at Leicester until 2019 

Mahrez only scored four goals last season but all counted, earning Leicester a crucial five points. His mother attended her first game in England when her son scored twice to beat Southampton on May 9. In the summer he signed a new contract to 2019 and married his English fiancee.

Pearson used him as a No 10 in the survival fight but Claudio Ranieri prefers the 24-year-old on the wing, finding one on ones and cutting inside. Phillips and Walsh agree Mahrez’s decision-making has improved over the course of his time in England and the defensive side to his game – important in Leicester’s style – is up to standard. 

His forward play goes beyond the norm, however, a magical style to bewitch opponents and supporters, and attract the attention of the continent’s biggest teams.

‘In this league, you need people who can go past opponents because it is the only way of creating space,’ says Walsh. ‘He has quickness in feet and has got a trick but can also with his body movement send defenders the wrong way. That is some real art.’