Weekly Why: Riyad Mahrez, PFA Player of the Year Awards and Africa’s Plight

Welcome to Bleacher Report’s Weekly Why, a place where we discuss world football’s biggest questions that may go neglected and/or avoided. Ranging from the jovial to the melancholic, no subject matter is deemed off limits.

Why Was Riyad Mahrez Africa’s First PFA POTY? 

I’m always intrigued by athletes’ reactions to made-up stats.

There are things like goals, assists, clean sheets and other “usual” statistics most footballers care about, but reactions to more nuanced (usually inconsequential) stats, are often muted and/or distant.

For example, if a player scores their 20th goal of the season, they likely understand that as a massive milestone and respond accordingly. If, however, a reporter tells the player they’ve scored eight of those goals with their left foot, and their eighth left-footed goal was the 100th left-footed goal of the season, they tend not to care.

For the viewer, it might seem an interesting fact, but a player’s brain is usually focused on doing their job well and winning, not how they’re accomplishment hadn’t been done since 1968.

When Riyad Mahrez received the 2015/16 PFA Player of the Year award, he sat down and discussed his distinguished prize. During the interview, one of those stats arrived, but Mahrez, rather than the stoicism of which I’ve become accustomed, looked bewildered by the information he received:

Interviewer: You’re the first African player to win the award; that’s got to be a great achievement as well?

Mahrez: I didn’t know that. There were big African players in the Premier League. [Didier] Drogba never won it? Whoa.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mahrez: Well it’s a honour, big honour to be the first African—not the best but the first, so I’m very happy, yeah.

Upon hearing he was Africa’s first player to win the honour, there was a look of impossibility on Mahrez’s face.

I’m not sure he should’ve been so shocked—as everything connected to Leicester City has an air of unbelievability attached this season—but I had a similar reaction as French-born Algeria international did: “Surely,” I thought, “someone from Africa had won a PFA or FWA Player of the Year award before?”

I did quick Wikipedia research, and sure enough, no Africans in sight.

Understanding the likes of Tony Yeboah, Nwankwo Kanu, Jay-Jay Okocha and Kolo Toure were great players, but not necessarily the best, their names missing from the lists was logical, but once entering the realm of …

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