Player says expectations from Leicester City were 'very flattering' but 'not easy' to handle

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Rachid Ghezzal has told DZ Foot that he struggled at Leicester City partly due to what was expected of him.

The winger was with the Foxed for three seasons before leaving them permanently for Beşiktaş in August 2021.

Ghezzal joined Leicester from AS Monaco and scored three goals from 23 matches in all competitions in his first season at the King Power Stadium.

Claude Puel was manager at Leicester City when the Algeria international arrived at the club. The Premier League club showed the exit door to Puel and replaced him with Brendan Rodgers in February 2019.

The 32-year-old was limited to 19 minutes of action from two games under Rodgers for Leicester. They sent him on loan to Fiorentina and Beşiktaş between 2019 and 2021 before selling him to the Turkish club.

In the summer of 2018, Leicester sold their former star, Riyad Mahrez, to Manchester City and replaced him with Ghezzal. He also had to replaced Bernardo Silva at AS Monaco after the latter also moved to the Etihad in 2017.

DZ Foot asked Ghezzal, who is currently at Çaykur Rizespor, how he handled replacing Silva and Mahrez at Monaco and the English club respectively.

“It’s not easy. When you arrive at a club that’s doing well, that’s winning, and they tell you that you have to replace our best player! They don’t necessarily say it like that, but still,” he said.

“But it’s also very flattering, because it shows that they have confidence in us, that we have a quality player. It helped me a lot in my career; it allowed me to handle a lot of pressure. It shaped me, it helped me gain experience.”

“It’s not easy to face all the expectations we have around us as individuals and as a team, something I experienced again in my career with Beşiktaş.” 

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