Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez has made a request to new soon-to-be Twitter owner Elon Musk. He has asked the billionaire to return his "blue tick" on the social media platform.
The 29-year-old has been in sensational form for Manchester City, scoring 23 times and providing nine assists in his 43 appearances across competitions this season.
Mahrez is the club's top scorer this term and has a Champions League semi-final second-leg against Real Madrid to look forward to this week (4 May). However, the winger seems to be bothered by non-football matters recently.
The Alegria international has over three million Twitter followers and had a verified account earlier. However, he recently lost the 'blue tick' (verified status) on his account.
Mahrez decided to take matters into his own hands and asked Musk directly on Twitter, asking him to give the elusive blue tick back.
Bro @elonmusk give me my blue tick back 😂😂😂
BBC News reported that the Tesla and PayPal founder agreed to a $44 billion takeover of the social network in late-April. He is yet to reply to the Manchester City forward.
The tweet received thousands of replies from fans though, with some joining the bandwagon for Mahrez's verification.
Hey @elonmusk you can't do our 🇩🇿 captain wrong give him back his blue tick ! 🤣#give_mahrez_his_blue_tick twitter.com/Mahrez22/statu…
Elon is wrong for this😤 #justiceforriyad twitter.com/mahrez22/statu…
Deal: knock out Madrid, get blue tick back. @elonmusk 🤝 @Mahrez22 twitter.com/Mahrez22/statu…
👀☑️ Guys, time to give Mahrez’s blue tick back @verified @elonmusk @Twitter twitter.com/mahrez22/statu…
Others, however, insisted that Musk should only grant Mahrez his request if he delivers a better performance for City against Madrid this week. The Manchester City winger missed several big chances in the first leg as they won 4-3 at the Etihad.
@elonmusk is a fanatic blaugrana, and he took ur blue tick after you missed five big chances vs Madrid last week.Your only chance is to score and eliminate Madrid on Wednesday, or he will deactivate your account permanently 😂😂 twitter.com/mahrez22/statu…
They might have given your blue tick to fill those empty seats so they can claim that Manchester is Blue. twitter.com/Mahrez22/statu…
Mahrez linked with move away from Manchester City
Mahrez has recorded some excellent numbers for the Sky Blues across the campaign. This has been Mahrez's most productive season since his arrival from Leicester in 2018. Despite that, the Algerian has only started 38% of the club's Premier League games this season.
He has faced competition on the flanks from the likes of Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish. Mahrez faces a near impossible job of nailing down a guaranteed starting place in Pep Guardiola's side.
The Algerian's contract expires in June 2023. Speculation has begun circulating that the player may be leaving the Etihad Stadium in the near future.
According to Tuttosport, as relayed by the Manchester Evening News, AC Milan are interested in signing Mahrez, with the winger impressing the club's new owners.
Bahrainian-based company Investcorp are set to purchase the Italian giants and are planning to invest heavily in the squad. Liverpool forward Divock Origi and Lille defender Sven Botman are also on the club's summer shopping list.
Riyad Mahrez could become the first ever non verified Twitter user to score in a #UCL semi-final on Wednesday.
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