Replacing a player is hard enough as it is, but replacing one of the greatest players to ever wear the shirt at a club? That’s a whole new ball game.
When Riyad Mahrez departed Leicester City for Manchester City in 2018, a huge void needed to be filled.
Not only did the replacement need to be a proven goal scorer, they needed to be someone that could get fans out of their seats.
Mahrez may have found Leicester fans booing him weird on his return, but that was largely as a result of frustrations from supporters because his replacement couldn’t deal with the pressure.
Now, seven years on, he has finally revealed what it felt like to replace a Leicester legend.
Rachid Ghezzal failed to make impact at Leicester
As one Algerian international left, another arrived in the form of Rachid Ghezzal.
Signed on a four-year deal after one season at Monaco, Ghezzal joined with the aim of being the direct replacement for Mahrez.
It didn’t go to plan and he scored just three goals for the Foxes before being loaned out. Asked why his move to the King Power Stadium never worked, he told Algerian outlet DZFoot: “It’s not easy.
“When you arrive at a club that’s doing well, that’s winning, and they tell you that you have to replace our best player! They don’t necessarily tell you like that, but still.
“But it’s also very flattering, because it shows that they have confidence in us, that we have a quality player. Afterwards, it helped me a lot in my career, it allowed me to manage a lot of pressure. It shaped me, it helped me gain experience.
“It’s not easy to face all these expectations that we have around us as individuals and as a team.”
Who does Rachid Ghezzal play for now?
After bouncing around a number of clubs across Europe, Ghezzal eventually made his home in Turkey, first at Besiktas and now at Caykur Rizespor.
The winger joined the latter in 2024 and after a difficult start has found a run of form, scoring all four goals this calendar year alone.
Aged 32, the wide man is coming towards the end of his career but maybe he will finally begin to show the sort of form that initially convinced the Foxes he could replace Mahrez.