In the early stages of his time at Leicester, Riyad Mahrez was reluctant to collect his man-of-the-match awards from sponsors waiting in the executive suites of the King Power Stadium.
He would take his time getting changed and needed to be cajoled out the dressing room and up the stairs. Not through any sense of inflated ego was Mahrez hesitant, rather he did not easily embrace being thrust into the limelight, even if that manifested as a smattering of suited supporters.
On Sunday evening at the Grosvenor Hotel it was Mahrez dressed up in smart black-tie attire and there was no escaping the adulation from a much wider audience. The shy boy from Sarcelles, a modest neighbourhood in northern Paris, had been voted the best player in England.
Just as he would when collecting previous individual awards, Mahrez, 25, thanked his team-mates. ‘We are like brothers,’ he said.
In any other year the words may have sounded like a cliche, but when a side tipped for relegation stand on the brink of a title, the power of team spirit cannot be dismissed.
Mahrez’s own story is just as unlikely. This is a player who seven years ago was in tears at being told a non-League French side were unable to afford to offer him a contract; who at 19 was still playing in a regional league in Paris; who before moving here had not competed above Ligue 2.
That is where Leicester found Mahrez in July 2012, playing for Le Havre. Head of recruitment Steve Walsh had gone out to scout another player but came back determined to learn more about a winger of style and divine skill.
‘Riyad was a bit raw but he had a great touch, he could kill the ball dead and go past people. I liked his positivity,’ Walsh has said. In January 2014 Leicester moved for Mahrez, paying a touch over £350,000.
Leicester got that price because they had the market to themselves, as Johann Louvel, Le Havre’s academy director, told Sportsmail. ‘No other English clubs took notice,’ he said. ‘We think other clubs just saw him as too frail. Leicester were the first to come in and he really wanted to try English football.’
Mahrez is settled in Leicester, having married his English girlfriend Janet Johal last summer and become a father in October. In an interview with French magazine Onze Mondial, he cited the birth of his daughter as the secret to his success.
‘She has put me in a good place. I think things clicked when she was born,’ he said.
Recent weeks have seen a slight lull in performance but nobody should be quick to write him off. They did that at his local amateur team AAS Sarcelles.
Spurred on by his father Ahmed, a constant source of support, Mahrez confounded the doubters. But with Mahrez aged 15, Ahmed died of a heart condition.
He says he became more driven to succeed in the game with his passing and opted to represent Algeria in tribute.
He became resilient on the pitch too, and at 17 earned a place in the Sarcelles first team. By 18, Mahrez attracted interest from Quimper, a team from the fourth tier of French football. He impressed but was told they could not afford him, prompting tears and a rethink from the club’s hierarchy. They sorted terms and were repaid. In 2010 Mahrez moved to Le Havre and set in train his path to stardom. – Daily Mail