A Quote by Riyad Mahrez

Sometimes you see me on the pitch, and you think I'm playing on the street. — © Riyad Mahrez
Sometimes you see me on the pitch, and you think I'm playing on the street.
I don't need to speak about N'Golo; everyone knows about him. He's everywhere. I think, sometimes when I'm on the pitch, I see him twice. One on the left, one on the right. I think I'm playing with twins!
I started playing futsal in the favela because it was the closest pitch to where we lived. I think it was good for me, playing in a small space like that. You have to think and act quickly.
Sometimes things are said on the pitch that people won't see at home. There's a bit of banter on the pitch as well.
When you walk onto the pitch at Old Trafford, it is not just a pitch, it is a stage. If my father could see me on that stage, I think he would be very proud. I was always kind of chasing him, and I think even though he's not here, he helped me to get to this place.
Sometimes people come to my standup show, and they think they're going to see Doug Wilson. Or they see me on the street, and they call me Doug Wilson.
The real Pogba is the one you see every time. You know, when I'm on the pitch, I cannot act. I'm not an actor. So when I'm in the pitch, I like to joke and laugh, and outside the pitch, I'm the same. For me, I'm normal. I come and play football. I do what I love.
To me, the most emotional thing is to see regular people wearing our clothes. Yes, sometimes I see our clothes on somebody, and I think, 'No!', but you can't stop someone in the street and say, 'Please go home and change.'
When I see fans in the street or at meet-and-greets, it's great. Sometimes they want me to be that person they see on TV, take a picture with a hand in their face or ask me to 'be mean like you do.' But I can't play that character 24-7.
Everything with me is normal except when I pitch (in Fenway Park). When I pitch here it's a little different. There is a little more anxiety to go along with the nostalgia because this is the park I grew up with as a kid. This is the park I dreamed of playing Major League Baseball in and no other ballpark has that feeling for me. There are a lot more family and friends here than in my normal starts and I want to pitch well here.
Obviously when you grow up in the area you love playing on the street, and to go from playing on the street with my mates to playing at Upton Park is a bit surreal, and 15 years on to still be in the heart of the West Ham midfield is quite good going!
I owe a lot to playing on the street. And what was even better than playing on the street was playing football with my friends in the local graveyard. It was fantastic. We forgot what the time was and didn't even go home for our meals.
If I hurt somebody's feelings, I go right to them and talk to them and explain what happens. Sometimes I'm mad at myself because I left a pitch in the middle. It's big when you leave a pitch in the middle. When I make that mistake, it's frustrating for me. I have to think about what I did wrong and go to the next step.
In Israel, there is this reduction of the political discourse to something that is very limited. It's as if you have that pitch that only dogs can hear. Sometimes I feel I speak at such a pitch that very few people around me communicate with what I'm saying.
Sometimes we're going to take marginal pitches on the edges and get called out on strike, but we want to get a pitch that we can drive and a pitch we can do damage on. I think when you do that, you don't necessarily chase as much out of the zone.
Luis Suarez's always been a great role model for me. His style of play is sometimes like he's playing with his mates in the street.
I think that sometimes when they see me in a movie they expect me to be something nasty. I mean, I play a lot of villains and you show up and they think maybe... That's why it's good to defy expectations sometimes.
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