I wept - Riyad Mahrez's wife reveals how she reacted to his Saudi Arabia move

Taylor Ward, the wife of Algerian football star Riyad Mahrez, claims she was reduced to tears after the player informed her about his move to Saudi Arabia.

Mahrez after winning a treble with Manchester City secured a £750,000-a-week deal with Saudi Arabia side Al Ahly. The former Leicester City winger joined Ahly on a £30million fee from Manchester City.

Despite the big pay cheque, Ward opposed the player’s decision to move to Saudi but said that she had ‘no choice’ after being told ‘’It’s part of the game, innit’.

“I feel like everyone is going to be all over the place, it is just going to be so hard, life is going to be so different,” Ward said in Amazon Prime Video’s series ‘Married to the Game’ as quoted by Daily Mail Online.

The model and influencer confessed to her sister Darby that she was not in support of relocating from England to Saudi Arabia.

“I feel like it is so hard. There are times I can’t, I just don’t like it. We have to talk about something else. I can’t stop crying. I don’t like it. I don’t have any choice.”

In another episode, Ward narrated the shock she had after she was informed by a hotel that swimming pools in the country are meant for only men.

“I won’t lie, I had a freakout yesterday,’ Ward said.

“I rang the hotel to ask ‘I’m coming with my baby, what do people wear around the pool’. I know it is a lot more conservative there and you have to dress a certain way.

“I said, ‘I just want to check when I come with a baby what is the best thing to wear, do I need to wear something covered if I am going in the water.”

“They were like ‘oh no sorry, it’s just a man’s pool, it is just a gents pool”.

In a recent interview with Daily Mail, Taylor Ward said life in Saudi Arabia has been actually smoother than expected due to ‘more relaxed’ rules.

‘I think it depends on where you go. At the moment they’re looking at relaxing these rules,’ she said.

‘From what I had heard, I was worried about that stuff when we first went, but it surprised me. It’s more relaxed from what I was first told.”

Riyad Mahrez and his family have been in Saudi Arabia since the summer of 2023.

EE/EK