Riyad Mahrez Football Profile: Al Shamal, Algeria Caps and Net Worth

Riyad Mahrez joined Qatar's Al Shamal as a free agent in October 2026, after Al-Ahli ended his contract at the end of the 2025-26 season. He retired from international football in July 2026 with about 119 to 120 caps and 40 goals for Algeria, depending on which count you trust. So, for readers who know the game as soccer, the Leicester hero and Man City legend has taken his left foot to the Gulf and hung up the green and white of the Fennecs.

What follows is the road from Quimper to Qatar with every reported fee, the honours with their years and the story behind them, his record with Algeria, and every published net worth figure beside the reason those figures disagree. In my opinion, Nigerian readers already know the chapter that matters most: Algeria's 2019 AFCON triumph, part of a rivalry with the Super Eagles that gives supporters of both sides plenty to celebrate.

Who Is Riyad Mahrez?

Riyad Mahrez is an Algeria international forward, born on 21 February 1991 in the Paris region of France, with Algerian and Moroccan heritage. He built his name on the right side of an attack, drifting inside to make things happen. Across the continent the search is simply Mahrez, much as Lagos says Jay Jay and nobody needs a surname.

So, why does an Algerian forward draw this many searches in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda? The answer, I would argue, is the weekend Premier League broadcast, which carried him from Leicester City to Manchester City for close to a decade. He won the CAF African Footballer of the Year award in 2016, and he belongs on any honest shortlist of African footballers who defined that era for viewers on this continent.

The Road From Quimper to Qatar: Every Club and Every Reported Fee

Mahrez reached the top through the lower divisions of French football rather than a famous academy. He played for Quimper before joining Le Havre in 2010. For any teenager in a Nigerian academy who is told the second tier leads nowhere, his route is a useful counterargument, because it was slower and it still arrived.

Leicester City signed him from Le Havre in January 2014 for a reported fee of about £450,000, and that half season ended with the Championship title in 2013-14. Two years later came the story that viewing centres from Surulere to Soweto still retell, as Leicester won the 2015-16 Premier League. Mahrez was named PFA Players' Player of the Year for that season before leaving the club in 2018.

Manchester City paid £60m for him in 2018, a record fee for an African player at the time. Over five seasons he won four Premier League titles, two FA Cups and three EFL Cups. His final season also brought the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League as part of a treble, which, in my opinion, is the cleanest answer to anyone who once asked whether a Leicester winger could carry his game to the very top.

Saudi club Al-Ahli signed him in July 2023 for a reported fee of about £30m. The club reported 122 appearances, 37 goals and 46 assists across his three years there. Al-Ahli ended his contract in July 2026, at the end of the 2025-26 season, and Africa Soccer reported that Al Shamal of Qatar signed him on a free transfer in October 2026.

Why Did Mahrez Leave Al-Ahli for Al Shamal?

Al-Ahli ended Mahrez's contract in July 2026, after the 2025-26 season, which made him a free agent, and Al Shamal signed him in October 2026 without paying a fee.

For fans in Nairobi or Kampala, the move fits a pattern they know well, because the Gulf has become the region where many African stars close out their careers. Staying in that part of the world keeps Mahrez on the screens that follow African players abroad. Use the stats module above to select a season and read appearances alongside goals, checking the competition and date shown.

What Does Mahrez Do on the Pitch?

Mahrez is a creator first, a wide forward who starts on the right and comes inside onto his left foot to shoot, slip a pass or draw a foul. His strengths, I would say, are close control in small spaces and a calm touch when the play slows down, which is why defenders so often chose to stand off him.

The defining club season was 2015-16 at Leicester, when he helped turn a squad built for far less than the giants into champions and collected the PFA award voted on by fellow players. That season is, perhaps, the best argument for judging a player by what he does with the ball rather than by his fee, since he had cost around £450,000 two years earlier. Lagos fans still reach for it whenever they want to prove that anything can happen on a weekend.

At Manchester City his role changed, because he shared minutes in a deep squad and had to make every touch count. The four league titles and the 2022-23 treble show how well he adapted to that. In Saudi Arabia he became the main creative outlet again, and the 46 assists Al-Ahli reported across three years tell you that the passing side of his game travelled with him.

How should fans in Johannesburg or Accra compare him with the wide men in Bafana Bafana or the Black Stars? The measure I would use is end product, meaning goals and assists per appearance, set beside the level of the league. In Qatar, what keeps that output high as the years pass is a role close to goal with set pieces on his left foot, and the stats module will show season by season how that is going.

Mahrez and the Fennecs: The 2019 AFCON and a Last World Cup

Mahrez finished his Algeria career with about 119 to 120 caps and 40 goals, a range that exists because outlets count his final appearances slightly differently. By October 2025 he had 106 caps and 33 goals, so the 2026 World Cup campaign added the last stretch of his tally. Many pages still quote those older figures, so the safest way to read any total is to check the date beside it.

Mahrez captained Algeria to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations title and was named in the team of the tournament. For Nigerian readers, that campaign belongs to the rich football rivalry between the Fennecs and the Super Eagles, two sides whose quality gives supporters plenty to admire.

His last tournament was the 2026 World Cup. The Fennecs lost 2-0 to Switzerland in the Round of 32, and Mahrez announced his retirement from international football in July 2026.

Who takes over from him in the Desert Foxes' attack? That question was already being asked in October 2025, when attention in Algeria turned to a younger group ready to take on his role. The answer will be written over qualifying campaigns and AFCON squads rather than in one game. For Nigerian fans, his 2019 title remains part of the shared history that gives the Super Eagles' rivalry with Algeria its appeal.

Riyad Mahrez net worth

Published estimates put Riyad Mahrez's net worth at about USD 85 million in 2025 (Pulse Nigeria, November 2025), with no calculation method given. At late 2025 exchange rates that is roughly ₦120 billion, KSh 11 billion, R1.5 billion, GH₵1 billion or USh 300 billion. Treat every figure here as a published estimate, never a set of accounts.

The salary estimates are more specific, and they are still estimates. Pulse Nigeria reported in November 2025 that he earned about £870,000 to £875,000 a week at Al-Ahli, or about £44.8m to £45.48m a year, which is roughly ₦1.7 billion a week. Sportskeeda, citing wage data, reported in May 2025 about USD 1.12 million gross a week. His pay at Al Shamal has not been reported, and no endorsement income figure has been published either.

Why should a wage never be mistaken for net worth? Because the money in a headline is rarely the money in a bank account. Transfer fees go to clubs, so the £60m Manchester City paid in 2018 went to Leicester and the £30m from Al-Ahli in 2023 went to City, not to the player. A gross weekly wage is income before deductions, agents and living costs, while net worth is what someone owns minus what they owe, which is a far harder number to see from outside.

Why can these figures differ? Wage estimates describe income over a period, while net worth estimates describe assets minus liabilities at a particular date. Without a published calculation method, the gap cannot be explained precisely. For South African and Nigerian readers comparing him with Bafana or Super Eagles stars, the useful distinction is between reported earnings and estimated wealth.

How to Watch Mahrez From Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda

Al Shamal matches are shown according to each country's broadcast rights, and those rights change between seasons, so the where to watch module above lists the options for Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda. Qatar's top flight does not always sit on the same channels as the Premier League, which is why it is worth checking the module before matchday rather than assuming your usual sports channel carries it.

Qatar keeps one time zone all year, three hours ahead of GMT, which matches East Africa Time exactly. So, a 7pm kick off in Qatar is 7pm EAT in Nairobi and Kampala, 6pm SAST in Johannesburg, 5pm WAT in Lagos and 4pm GMT in Accra. Fixture times in the module are already converted into all four zones, which saves the arithmetic that has caused many an argument about who arrived late.

In Ghana, Kenya and Uganda much of this viewing happens on pay television and on screens in bars and viewing centres, so ask your local spot early whether they show Qatari football. And, because Gulf evening kick offs land in the late afternoon for viewers in West Africa, set a reminder from the fixtures module the day before each Al Shamal match.