Scout explains surprising reason why Nigel Pearson wanted Riyad Mahrez at Leicester City

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Mahrez was a long way from being a Premier League champion and PFA Player of the Year when he arrived at the King Power in 2014.

Nigel Pearson decided to bring Riyad Mahrez to Leicester City in January 2014 in order to add more foreign blood to a predominantly British squad, former head of technical scouting Rob Mackenzie has told Sky Sports.

The then-unknown Algerian’s switch to the King Power Stadium midway through the 2013/14 season is now the stuff of legend, with the dynamic winger rising to prominence to spearhead the Foxes’ charge to the Premier League title, seizing the PFA Player of the Year award to boot.

However, Leicester were just one of many promotion hopefuls when Mahrez signed from Ligue 2 club Le Havre three years ago, with David Nugent their talismanic top scorer and a rough-edged Jamie Vardy struggling to adapt after arriving from non-league.

And Mackenzie says the decision to add the silky wide man to their ranks was made in order to add some continental flair to a squad with a strong British backbone.

“When I was working with Nigel at Leicester City in the Championship we had a predominantly British core and if players weren’t actually British a number of them had played in England for a long time so they were fully acclimatised to the respective level and the expectations placed upon them – Kasper Schmeichel, Chris Wood and Ritchie de Laet for example,” Mackenzie, who also worked at Tottenham and Derby, told Sky Sports.

“I think that British core actually contributed to us feeling that we could bring in some foreign players at that time – Anthony Knockaert, Marcin Wasilewski and Riyad Mahrez for example – as they could provide us with qualities that we were perhaps lacking a bit, whether that be creativity or high-level experience and leadership.”

The minimal £400,000 fee The Foxes paid to secure the services of the now-Premier League champion, via the Leicester Mercury, will surely go down as one of the most inspired signings of the generation.