Riyad Mahrez set to leave Leicester City after rejecting new contract offer

According to the Guardian, Riyad Mahrez is set to reject Leicester City’s offer of a new contract after the player has decided he wants a new challenge away from the current Premier League champions.

Mahrez has attracted a lot of attention from many clubs in England and overseas after his performances in Leicester’s title-winning season, last season. The Algerian joined Leicester in 2014 from the French side Le Havre for just £375,000, however, his value is now estimated at almost 100 times more than his original price (from Le Havre to Leicester).

The PFA Player of the Year still has three years left to run on the contract he signed last August and his current deal is believed to be worth £35,000 a week. However, after holding talks with Leicester over a new deal believed to be in the region of £80,000 a week, Mahrez is apparently unwilling to extend his stay at the King Power Stadium and has asked his representatives to find him a new club this summer.

Claudio Ranieri, who urged all of his players to stay at the club at the end of last season, had been optimistic about Mahrez’s future just one day before saying that he was confident the midfielder would stay at Leicester. However it now seems like he could be on his way out.

Ranieri said at the club’s training camp in Austria: “He remains with us. He is not the kind of man who will say: ‘Coach I want to leave.’ He is happy here,”