Weekly Why: Riyad Mahrez, PFA Player of the Year Awards and Africa's Plight

Welcome to Bleacher Report's Weekly Why, a place where we discuss world football's biggest questions that may go neglected and/or avoided. Ranging from the jovial to the melancholic, no subject matter is deemed off limits.

Why Was Riyad Mahrez Africa's First PFA POTY? 

I'm always intrigued by athletes' reactions to made-up stats.

There are things like goals, assists, clean sheets and other "usual" statistics most footballers care about, but reactions to more nuanced (usually inconsequential) stats, are often muted and/or distant.

For example, if a player scores their 20th goal of the season, they likely understand that as a massive milestone and respond accordingly. If, however, a reporter tells the player they've scored eight of those goals with their left foot, and their eighth left-footed goal was the 100th left-footed goal of the season, they tend not to care.

For the viewer, it might seem an interesting fact, but a player's brain is usually focused on doing their job well and winning, not how they're accomplishment hadn't been done since 1968.

When Riyad Mahrez received the 2015/16 PFA Player of the Year award, he sat down and discussed his distinguished prize. During the interview, one of those stats arrived, but Mahrez, rather than the stoicism of which I've become accustomed, looked bewildered by the information he received:

"

Interviewer: You're the first African player to win the award; that's got to be a great achievement as well?

Mahrez: I didn't know that. There were big African players in the Premier League. [Didier] Drogba never won it? Whoa.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mahrez: Well it's a honour, big honour to be the first African—not the best but the first, so I'm very happy, yeah.

"

Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

Upon hearing he was Africa's first player to win the honour, there was a look of impossibility on Mahrez's face.

I'm not sure he should've been so shocked—as everything connected to Leicester City has an air of unbelievability attached this season—but I had a similar reaction as the French-born Algeria international did: "Surely," I thought, "someone from Africa had won a PFA or FWA Player of the Year award before?"

I did quick Wikipedia research, and sure enough, no Africans in sight.

Understanding the likes of Tony Yeboah, Nwankwo Kanu, Jay-Jay Okocha and Kolo Toure were great players, but not necessarily the best, their names missing from the lists was logical, but once entering the realm of Drogba, Yaya Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor or Michael Essien, it started to become more strange.

Adebayor and Essien were in-and-around the conversation, but nothing like foul play could be called in their respective cases.

Essien was one of Chelsea's most important players in 2005/06. Without him, the Blues' wouldn't have won the league by an eight-point margin, but with Claude Makelele and Frank Lampard in midfield alongside him, the Ghanaian's contribution was somewhat lost. The PFA award was given to Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and the FWA given to Arsenal's Thierry Henry.

Two seasons later, Adebayor—taking Henry's spot as Arsene Wenger's attacking focal point—scored 30 goals in 48 appearances for the north Londoners. It just so happened Cristiano Ronaldo scored 42 goals in 49 appearances for Manchester United and won a treble with Sir Alex Ferguson. Again, not too much debate for Adebayor. Despite the Togolese's impressive haul, Ronaldo won PFA and FWA honours.

IAN KINGTON/Getty Images

"

Mahrez goal is exactly what Ronaldo, Lampard, Drogba, Henry etc did in title races. Provided the individual brilliance to win a tight game.

— Daniel Garb (@DanielGarb) 6 March 2016"

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Now we start walking into sketchy territory.

Carlo Ancelotti took over at Stamford Bridge before the 2009/10 season, and he gave owner Roman Abramovich an open, expansive (yet still Italian) brand of football. The beneficiary of this ethos was Drogba.

Cote d’Ivoire's former captain won the Golden Boot, scoring 29 goals in 32 Premier League games (37 goals in 44 in all competitions). Moreover, the Ivorian missed five games while at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and was suspended three games by UEFA for his profane outburst following Chelsea's 2008/09 UEFA Champions League elimination.

Though Drogba played the best season in his career, winning his third EPL crown and scoring the winning goal in 2009/10's FA Cup final (1-0 against Portsmouth), the PFA and FWA Player of the Year honours went to Manchester United's Wayne Rooney.

The Englishman scored 26 goals in 32 Premier League games (34 goals in 33 in all competitions). Manchester United won the League Cup—in which Rooney scored the winning goal—but other than that, Drogba outplayed his Red Devils counterpart.

At the time, it should have been strange Rooney winning both, but being a person not particularly concerned with individual honours, I remember not thinking too much about it. Looking back, however, it's more than strange, it's peculiar.

Jan Kruger/Getty Images

Another interesting case is Toure. Drogba's international team-mate was the primary reason Manchester City won the 2013/14 Premier League. His foremost competition was Liverpool's Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan, by most accounts, was the best player in England. He scored 31 goals in 33 Premier League appearances, after serving a suspension for biting Branislav Ivanovic in 2012/13.

I can't say Toure was robbed, or Suarez wasn't worthy, because neither would be true. Suarez was a justified winner, but the Ivorian scored 20 goals from midfield, assisted nine goals and won two trophies, whereas Liverpool stumbled at the finish line, leaving the particular campaign empty-handed.

It's never obvious whether winning, one's performances or some combination is the criteria. It's also interesting the winners of the award are announced before the season ends. How can informed decisions be made without the full story? In both cases (Drogba's and Toure's) the season wasn't decided until matchday 38, and the best players on the eventual second-place clubs, Rooney and Suarez, won the awards.

So, could the answer to why Mahrez and Africa's first PFA Player of the Year award took this long simply be down to a confluence of uneventful coincidences? I'd prefer that to be true, because I don't really want to consider alternative possibilities.

It should be said, only five percent of 200 Premier League Player of the Month awards have gone to African footballers since it began in 1994. A positive thing, though, is two awards have been given to African players this season (Andre Ayew and Odion Ighalo).

Combined with Leicester City's talisman, there seems light for African footballers in the Premier League. Building on the foundation of legends who came before, Mahrez, Ighalo, Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi, Bertrand Traore and others should lay the next bricks.

I can hope so, anyway.

Last Weekly: Premier League, Jamie Vardy and the Legislating of Emotion | Why Can't Players Show Genuine Emotions?

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*Stats via WhoScored.com; transfer fees via Soccerbase where not noted.