Al-Ahli have scheduled a medical for Manchester City forward Riyad Mahrez amid growing optimism that the Saudi Arabian Pro League will snare another star name. Agreement over personal terms with the Algerian international is close, according to CBS Sports sources, but so far the club have not submitted a formal offer to City. That may not come until an agreement has been secured with Mahrez but there is a growing belief within Saudi circles that he will soon commit to terms understood to be worth €30 million a year.
CBS Sports first revealed Al-Ahli's interest in Mahrez on June 7, when club president Waleed Muaath traveled to London in a bid to convince the 2016 PFA Player of the Year to make the move to Saudi Arabia. His name featured towards the very top of the list of targets that Al-Ahli submitted to their owners, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), before the start of the transfer window and Mahrez himself is believed to be keen on the move.
Al-Ahli's offer to City is expected to be worth £30 million, a significant sum for a 32-year-old who is out of contract in two years. Whether Pep Guardiola would want to lose him is open to debate. In 47 games last season, Mahrez delivered 15 goals and 13 assists, however, in the biggest games of the season he tended to feature infrequently, registering just 11 minutes from the quarterfinal stage of the Champions League onwards.
Mahrez is not the only City player attracting interest from Saudi Arabia. CBS Sports revealed earlier this month that Al-Hilal were prepared to pay £70 million for Bernardo Silva, who is also a target for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. Sources close to PIF rate it as unlikely that City would allow both Silva and Mahrez to depart in the same summer, particularly with Ilkay Gundogan having departed already and doubts persisting over the future of Kyle Walker. Aymeric Laporte and Joao Cancelo are also expected to leave.
At Al-Ahli, Mahrez would join up with former Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and Roberto Firmino, who left Liverpool as a free agent last month. Mahrez has won five Premier League titles, the EFL Championship, two FA Cups, three EFL Cups and the Champions League since moving to England with Leicester City in January 2014. He subsequently moved to Manchester City in 2018 and has been a regular in Guardiola's side without ever quite taking on the same vital role he had with his former club.
