Riyad Mahrez Reveals the Secret of His No.26 Jersey at Manchester City and Leicester

DBasia.news – Riyad Mahrez shares the story of how he decided to wear the number 26 jersey when playing for Leicester City and Manchester City.

The player from Algeria never wore the number before breaking into the Foxes’ first team, always wearing the number 22 when he was at Le Havre.

However, in January 2014, Mahrez left France to help the Foxes gain promotion to the Premier League, but he only found two numbers available – 28 and 26, until he chose the final number.

The 30-year-old defended the number when he left Manchester City four years later, after becoming part of The Foxes’ history of winning the EPL trophy in 2015/16.

“The story behind the number 26. When I arrived at Leicester, there were only two numbers left, 28 and 26,” he told City TV. “So really saying, ‘OK, I’ll take 26’ and that gives me a lot of good things. I won the league with Leicester, went to the Champions League quarter-finals and I love it and keep it.”

“When I came here, I could have taken number 11 but I would have preferred to stick with number 26.”

The player who won the title of African player of the year 2016 then shared a little about his pre-match habits: “I read the Koran a little bit and I just prayed, and asked God to make sure everything is okay today.”

In the middle of this week, Mahrez was absent when the Algerian national team drew Zambia with a score of 3-3 in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying.

However, The Desert Foxes have already qualified and are currently topping Group H with 11 points from five matches. They will host Botswana in the final match.