Riyad Mahrez embarked on a new journey in his career in 2023 when he decided to leave Manchester City to join Saudi Pro League Al-Ahli. This helped him embrace a brand new culture and lifestyle as compared to the one he led in England, also letting him ditch the fake Mancunian accent he had developed.
Mahrez and his wife Taylor Ward were recently featured in the Amazon TV show ‘Married to the Game’ where fans got a peak into the Algerian’s personal life. That includes his lavish home, his lucrative assets and more curiously his surprising accent that has freaked out a lot of fans.
What Is Up With Riyad Mahrez’s Accent?
In a clip now gone viral on social media, Mahrez can be heard discussing their impending move to Saudi Arabia before joining Al-Ahli.
Mahrez tried his best to comfort his wife into accepting their new lifestyle, telling her: “You can always come back anytime you want. You’re going to be with me, I’m your friend as well. God made it (the move) easy for me. I thought it was going to be more difficult than that.”
When his wife told him that he didn’t even flinch at the move to Saudi, he simply replied: “It’s part of the game Innit?”
The accent in which he speaks in, which seems like Manc accent, has surprised many. Some have even complained that the deepness in Mahrez’s voice makes him sound like a chain smoker – noting on Reddit that the ‘Man sounds like he smoked 5 packs a day since the age of 10.’ Another noted that ‘He sounds like an old overweight smoker.’
Mahrez has even been compared to the character Viktor Bryukhano from the hit HBO show ‘Chernobyl’ because of his similar appearance and vocal range as the character.
One individual noted that the reason for Mahrez’s raspy voice could be because he might’ve been hit in the throat, noting how Formula One legend Kimi Raikkonen’s voice deepened because his vocal chords got crushed by his bicycle when he was a child. However, there isn’t any evidence of whether the winger had any vocal cord injuries in the past.
The more realistic situation is that Mahrez managed to make up a customized Mancunian accent during all his years at Manchester. The Mancunian accent, sometimes called Manc, is normally the way people of the Manchester and wider Greater Manchester Area speak like, with the dialect having been termed as “twangy” and “euphonic”, and one of the friendliest ones in the UK.
This accent is even considered as ‘posh’ and obviously wouldn’t have been easy for Mahrez, who grew up in France and spent four years in England (at Leicester City) before moving to Manchester in 2018. Well, it’s clear that Riyad decided to develop his accent during his years at Man City, as a means of fitting in better with the people in the city.
Many footballers often tend to learn the language of the country they are playing in, and while Mahrez started to become fluent in speaking English in his years at Leicester, he had to work hard to develop this particular accent after joining Pep Guardiola’s side.
It’s probable that the Algerian international probably took the help of a dialect coach to make him more fluent in the Mancunian accent, or he might’ve gotten tips from his wife – a Mancunian herself – to teach him how to speak English in that kind of an accent.
