Man City preparing to receive bid for star who’ll be gifted £865k per week in Saudi Arabia

Ciaran McCarthy
Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Manchester City, April 2022
Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva applaud fans, Manchester City, April 2022

Manchester City are reportedly anticipating a bid for Riyad Mahrez from Al Ahli, as the winger has already been offered an £865k-per-week contract.

Saudi Arabian sides seem to be taking over the world at the moment. Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Al Nassr last year could have been seen as a unique event at the time.

But that move is anything but unique now. The players that have left Europe for Saudi Arabia this summer range from Karim Benzema to Ruben Neves and Edouard Mendy.

Those moves show it’s not just players at the end of their careers, nor is it players with nothing left to offer. Man City man Mahrez could be the next to follow that path.

In June, it was reported the City winger had been offered a mammoth contract in order to join Al Ahli. That’s reinforced by talkSPORT, who state he’s ‘keen to join’ after receiving the eye-watering £865k-per-week offer.

And it’s now only a matter of time before City receive a proposal to take Mahrez off them. Indeed, talkSPORT reports City are ‘anticipating a bid’ from the Saudi side.

The understanding is that Al Ahli would be willing to pay £30million to City for the winger. He was signed for double that from Leicester City in 2018, but that was for a player in his prime, coming off the back of three fantastic seasons.

Of course, he’s just won a treble with City, scoring 15 goals across all competitions, as well as providing 13 assists.

As such, whether they feel that offer is up to scratch remains to be seen. Mahrez still has two years left on his contract, and he’s obviously still an impactful player for the Citizens.

They’d presumably be more likely to succumb to the offer if he had just one year left on his deal, in the knowledge that in a year’s time, he’d be able to walk away for nothing in order to accept his mammoth contract.

It remains to be seen what they’ll do. For Mahrez, he’d make good money either way – though obviously more at Al Ahli – but the standard of football there, while rising with European imports, is not yet close to that of the Premier League, where he’s still doing well.

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