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The African Vardy?
- Updated: August 30, 2016
As Leicester are linked with a move for Sporting’s Islam Slimani, some are already wondering where he’ll fit in. With the help of experts in Portugal and Algeria, Adam Bate discovers the story of a hard-working striker who has been written off before…
It would be fitting if Islam Slimani’s final game in a Sporting shirt proves to be his goalscoring display against the dragons of Porto in Sunday night’s 2-1 victory. They are the opponents against whom the Algerian forward has netted six goals in six league games, thus earning him the nickname of the dragon slayer. It’s been a remarkable rise for Sporting’s knight.
Leicester are used to such stories, of course. They practically have the monopoly on them, having won the Premier League title with a bargain bunch of underrated journeyman from across the globe. The club even has an Algerian hero of their own in PFA player of the year Riyad Mahrez. But it’s Jamie Vardy who provides the more obvious comparison with Slimani.
For while Mahrez was in the French second tier at 21, Slimani found himself in the Algerian fourth division. His transfer from CR Belouizdad to Sporting came when 25, the same age at which Vardy traded Fleetwood for the Foxes. If a northern seaside town is obscurity, then what of North Africa and the artificial turf of the third most successful side in Algiers?
Algerian journalist Maher Mezahi has tracked Slimani’s progress throughout and, frankly, hopes have not always been high. “He’s been an underdog throughout his career,” Mehazi tells Sky Sports. “No one would have ever predicted he’d come this far. He was a nobody until Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic called him up for a dead-rubber friendly against Niger.”
Slimani was soon accused of having ‘square feet’ by the local press. Halilhodzic said misses were inevitable, given he’d come from “a small club in the Algerian countryside” and that rawness hasn’t left him. As recently as January, Sporting coach Jorge Jesus described Slimani as “a player full of technical and tactical defects” – and these are the views of his …
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