{"id":26714,"date":"2026-05-20T09:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/26714\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:44:14","slug":"wanted-to-play-for-them-five-time-premier-league-winner-reveals-barcelona-dream-and-failed-transfer-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/26714\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Wanted to play for them&#8217; &#8211; Five-time Premier League winner reveals Barcelona dream and failed transfer talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez has admitted that his biggest football dream was to play for Barcelona alongside Lionel Messi under Pep Guardiola.<\/p>\n<p>The Algerian star, who became one of the Premier League\u2019s most entertaining attackers during his time at Leicester City and Manchester City, opened up about the transfer opportunities he had before eventually moving to the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Mahrez played a historic role in Leicester City\u2019s unforgettable Premier League title-winning campaign and became one of the most wanted wingers in European football.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Several major clubs reportedly explored a deal for him during that period, including Barcelona and Real Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>A failed Barcelona dream<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/southampton-v-manchester-city-the-emirates-fa-cup-quarter-final-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Riyad Mahrez, former Manchester City player\" class=\"wp-image-65643\"  \/>Mahrez wanted to play for Barcelona. (Photo by Mike Hewitt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during an interview on Koora Break, the former Manchester City winger revealed just how strongly he wanted the Barcelona move to happen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy dream was to play for Barcelona with Guardiola and Messi. I spoke to many teams before joining City.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spoke to Real Madrid, Barcelona and United, but Leicester were asking for very high transfer fees to let me go, and I didn\u2019t have a release clause, so I couldn\u2019t join those teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A contract with no clause<\/p>\n<p>Mahrez also admitted that one contract decision during his Leicester City days ultimately stopped him from securing a move earlier in his career.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"715\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/al-ahli-v-fc-machida-zelvia-afc-champions-elite-final-1024x715.jpg\" alt=\"Riyad Mahrez, Al Ahli player\" class=\"wp-image-200203\"  \/>Mahrez now plays in Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Abdullah Ahmed\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the situation, the Algerian international explained,\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[N\u2019Golo] Kante was smarter to include a \u20ac30 million release clause in his contract to join Chelsea, whereas I had turned it down, which forced me to stay at Leicester for two more years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Mahrez eventually reunited with Guardiola at Manchester City, where he became one of the Spanish manager\u2019s most trusted attacking weapons.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The winger went on to win four Premier League titles, five domestic trophies, and the Champions League in England.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/as.com\/futbol\/internacional\/mahrez-hable-con-el-madrid-f202605-n\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">AS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez has admitted that his biggest football dream was to play for Barcelona&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,223,13923],"class_list":["post-26714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-riyad-mahrez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}