Al-Shabab President Comments on Riyad Mahrez Transfer

Riyad Mahrez’s name refuses to leave the Saudi headlines, and this time it was Al-Shabab’s own president who poured fuel on the fire.

Al-Shabab had just been beaten 2-0 by Al-Hilal at the SHG Arena in the fifth round of the Roshn League on Friday night when attention abruptly shifted from the pitch to the transfer market. The result stung, but the questions for Abdulaziz Al-Malik were all about Mahrez.

Linked to the club in the hours leading up to the game, the Algerian’s future dominated the post-match conversation. Asked directly about Al-Shabab’s position on signing the former Al-Ahli star before the close of the summer window, Al-Malik chose his words carefully but knowingly kept the door wide open.

“Riyad Mahrez is a big gain for Saudi football and for Al-Shabab, and God willing we will see over the next 48 hours what will happen,” he told Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.

That single line was enough. The transfer talk, already simmering, immediately boiled over.

Mahrez, 35, left Al-Ahli at the end of last season after the club unilaterally terminated his contract a year before it was due to expire. His three-year spell in the Saudi league, which began with his move from Manchester City in the summer of 2023, brought two AFC Champions League Elite titles and a Saudi Super Cup, underlining his status as one of the league’s marquee foreign players.

Now, with reports of a possible return to Al-Ahli and rival interest from Al-Ittihad, Al-Shabab have stepped into the frame at a delicate moment. The president’s public admiration, combined with his hint of movement within “48 hours”, has only intensified the sense that Mahrez is once again at the centre of a tug-of-war in Saudi football.

A bruising defeat to Al-Hilal may have triggered the questions, but the bigger story is clear: where will one of the league’s most decorated wingers land next, and how much could that decision reshape the balance of power in the Roshn League this season?