A few years later, when Le Havre wanted to move him on, he was offered a transfer to an English Championship club. "At the start, I said to myself: 'I will never go,'" he said last year. "My agents said: 'Are you crazy or what? Leicester City is a fantastic club.' I thought that it was a rugby club! I promise you. I met the Leicester representatives, but I said to my friends afterwards: 'I will never go.'"

Eventually he was persuaded to make the move, which ultimately landed him the most unexpected of Premier League title winning medals. And now he is faced with another decision after telling Leicester that he wants to leave the club.

But has he missed his time? At the end of last term, Leicester's key men -- Mahrez, Jamie Vardy, N'Golo Kante, Kasper Schmeichel, Wes Morgan -- were left with difficult choices. They knew that they could never achieve anything better at the King Power Stadium, but the prospect of continuing the implausible journey all the way into the Champions League was a strong pull.

Ultimately Kante was the only one to leave, and that proved a wise move as he won the title again at Chelsea. Morgan and Schmeichel stayed, Vardy turned down Arsenal, while Mahrez signed a new contract. On a number of levels this is understandable, but ultimately Vardy and Mahrez made sentimental decisions, trying to extend the romance for a little bit longer.

The sensible, perhaps hard-nosed, choice would have been to take advantage of the highest point of their careers, to move while their stock was at its peak. That's what Kante did, and while nobody could have confidently predicted that his time at Chelsea would be quite so successful, the move was entirely sensible and logical.

Last summer Mahrez could essentially have taken his pick, as the likes of Bayern, Barcelona and most of England's big boys would've been happy to sign the reigning player of the year.

Not this summer though. Mahrez's form this season has been patchy, to say the least. He scored six goals and had four assists, as opposed to the 17 and 10 he got in the title-winning campaign, and spent many games as a peripheral figure. Partly that was down to perception, the old English problem of believing a player with a languid style "isn't trying" when they're actually just low on confidence or simply out of form. But it was clear that Mahrez -- certainly before Craig Shakespeare took over -- was a shadow of last season's player.

Shakespeare admitted as such in March. "Mahrez has been frustrated with himself," he said, after the winger scored against Hull. "We told him to go out there and be himself... hopefully now he can go on a run."

The explanation for this might be because teams double-marked him, or because Leicester in general reverted to nearer their natural level of performance, or maybe simply because he isn't anywhere near as good as his one brilliant season suggested. Perhaps Mahrez is the ultimate example of Leicester's outlier status: a player who performed wildly above his actual ability in the best purple patch of all.

But it doesn't much matter why he's not been any good anymore. Any team looking to buy him will be seeking a shrewder investment.

Leicester will ask for a significant transfer fee, probably in the region of £40 million, but it's tough to see any of the top six clubs in England paying that. All either have more reliable players in his position, more urgent problems to attend to, or both.

Tottenham might appear the most logical fit, but in an interview with L'Equipe last year Mahrez admitted he isn't a big fan of relentless running and defending: his first training session with Mauricio Pochettino would be interesting, to say the least.

He might be regarded as an option for Arsenal, but their attacking midfield ranks are already crowded, and he wouldn't be a convincing replacement for Alexis Sanchez, should he leave. Chelsea have better options; as do Liverpool and Manchester City, while Manchester United have bigger targets in mind.

There are myriad clubs outside the Premier League that might want to recruit him -- most notably Ligue 1 champions Monaco -- but they will not be of the same calibre as the "two or three clubs" that Mahrez admitted would turn his head back in 2016.

The winger's decision to stay at Leicester last summer was understandable, given it was made in the emotional afterglow of such a miraculous feat. But if he had big ambitions beyond Leicester, he has probably missed his chance now.