Riyad Mahrez would love to play alongside Lionel Messi at Barcelona

Mahrez the Algerian magician

Last weekend Leicester City went from surprise leaders to title favourites in the space of 90 fabulous minutes of football. “Why shouldn’t they be champions?” exclaimed Peter Drury after Mahrez’s wonderful goal against Manchester City which sealed an emphatic victory for the Foxes.

The Algerian has had an amazing rise to prominence in the last year and has been instrumental to Leicester’s success in the League. And the 24-year-old hasn’t stopped dreaming even stating his desire to play alongside the best in the world. In an interview with Goal.com, when asked whether he would like to play with Messi at Barcelona he said “It’s not my goal or my dream but obviously everyone wants to play with Messi. One day, maybe. Why not?”.

Mahrez has been exceptional this season notching 14 goals and 10 assists, helping his team to the summit. His playing style has earned many plaudits, with his movement, pace and trickery terrorising defences across the league. He was asked who his footballing hero was and he said, “I didn’t have a hero but there were some players I liked watching Players like Zinedine Zidane, Didier Drogba, Messi, the Brazilian Ronaldo”.

Mahrez came from humble beginnings, playing in France with Quimper in the fourth division in 2009. In 2010, he moved Le Havre and after four years he joined Leicester City on 2014, helping the Foxes to earn promotion in his very first season. But he never initially envisioned himself playing in England's top flight. His original aim was to pay against the giants of French football such as PSG and Monaco.

“No [when I was at Le Havre] I didn’t want to play in the Premier League, I wanted to play in the French Ligue 1” he said. “When I came here I always thought I would play in the Premier League, but before, no” he added.

Mahrez says Leicester are just enjoying the ride

Leicester face title-chasing Arsenal this weekend. They are currently five points clear of Sunday’s opponents and could see that gap rise to eight if they overcome the Gunners at the Emirates.

At the start of the season people would have looked at this fixture as a possible top vs bottom clash but as things have turned out Leicester can affirm their status as title favourites against a team who are probably expected to compete and win the league.

But Mahrez says he and his teammates are as relaxed as ever and are just enjoying the ride. “We wanted 40 points [at the start of the season] but now we want to enjoy what we are doing. We’re not thinking about anything else” stated the 24-year-old.