“Riyad Mahrez: Ranked 6th in Most “Man of the Match” Awards in Champions League History”

Manchester City’s Algerian international striker Riyad Mahrez continues to make history in world football in general and in Europe in particular. It is that the captain of the Fennecs continues his way in the Premier League and in the European Champions League, and this, since his arrival in Leicester in 2014.

After breaking records and performing XXL performances, particularly in the Champions League, Riyad Mahrez finds himself in a rather special ranking. A ranking among the greats of the world of football, like the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, the Argentinian Lionel Messi, the Frenchman of Algerian origin Karim Benzema, the Pole Robert Lewandowsky and the Brazilian Neymar.

Indeed, the right winger of the Algerian and Manchester City team is one of the players who have been named “Man of the Match” the most times in the European Champions League since 2009. The Fennecs striker is ranked 6th thanks to the 12 times he has won the trophy Player of the matchwith this precision that for him the account started in 2017, unlike the 5 players who exceed him in the ranking.

Indeed, Riyad Mahrez has been named Man of the Match 12 times in the European Champions League, since 2017, after the coronation with Leicester City in the Premier League in 2016. This is not the case for the first of this rather special classification who practically started their steps in the Champions League in 2009, with the exception of Neymar who started with Barça in 2014.

Riyad Mahrez helps write Premier League history

In fact, it is Lionel Messi who prances at the top of this ranking with 67 times “man of the match” in the European Champions League, followed by far by Cristiano Ronaldo with 40 nominations. In third position comes the Brazilian striker Neymar with 23 times “man of the match”, closely followed by Robert Lewandowsky, with 21 nominations. And it is the Frenchman of Kabyle origin Karim Benzema who comes in 5th place with 13 designations player of the match in the Champions League, one more than the Algerian Riyad Mahrez.

The top 6 players who have been named POTM most frequently in UCL since 2009:

1) 🇦🇷 Lionel Messi (67)
2) 🇵🇹 Cristiano Ronaldo (40)
3) 🇧🇷 Neymar Jr (23)
4) 🇵🇱 Robert Lewandowski (21)
5) 🇨🇵 Karim Benzema (13)
6) 🇩🇿 Riyad Mahrez (12)

— 𝗖𝗗𝗙 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹 (@CDF_Football) May 13, 2023

It must be said that Riyad Mahrez is contributing to the writing of the history of the Premier League and the Champions League. Recently, he broke Ivorian Didier Drogba’s record of 55 assists for the best African assists in the Premier League, some time later reaching 60 assists^{Riyad Mahrez makes Premier League history” rel=”footnote”>1}.

In the national team, the captain of the Fennecs is the 3rd top scorer in the history of the national team with 29 goals, far behind the top scorer, Islam Slimani, who has 41 goals. On the other hand, Riyad Mahrez is the best assist provider with 28 passes in 78 caps, and there it is Slimani who is far behind with only 19 assists.