Replicating Africa’s Premier League GREAT winger — can Yohanna pull it off at Brighton?

Super Eagles prospect Zadok Yohanna has barely unpacked at Brighton & Hove Albion and he is already forcing a serious conversation across platforms. 

The 18-year-old Nigerian winger, who has completed a reported £21.5 million move from AIK Stockholm to Brighton & Hove Albion, revealed that his teammates in Nigeria nicknamed him Riyad Mahrez because of the way he plays. 

That comparison is no small thing: Mahrez left the Premier League with 60 assists in 284 appearances and remains one of the most decorated African wingers in English football history.

Yohanna’s own words make the point even clearer. “My teammates in Nigeria, that’s the name they gave me,” he said. “They say I dribble like Riyad Mahrez, I play like Mahrez, so they gave me the name Riyad Mahrez.” 

That comparison matters because Mahrez’s Premier League profile is easy to define: a left-footed right winger who loved to isolate full-backs, cut inside, and create rather than simply sprint past people. 

But modeling your game after a 5-time English Premier League champion, a Champions League winner, and a PFA Player of the Year is an immense technical burden. 

If Yohanna truly is the reincarnation of the iconic winger, here are three things fans can definitively expect from his debut season at the Amex Stadium.

Riyad Mahrez built an absolute empire in the Premier League on a single, predictable, yet entirely un-stoppable movement. 

Operating strictly from the right flank, Mahrez would isolate his fullback, execute a dizzying sequence of body feints, and drop his shoulder to instantly cut inside onto his lethal left foot.

During his legendary 2015/16 title-winning campaign with Leicester, where he racked up an astonishing 17 goals and 11 assists, defenders knew exactly what he was going to do, yet they couldn't stop it.

Because Yohanna is also a naturally left-footed winger deployed on the right, Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler will use him as the primary tactical wide outlet. 

Expect Yohanna to actively refuse to run down the touchline to cross blindly; instead, his entire game will revolve around cutting inside into the half-spaces to unleash curlers into the far corner or split defenses with dynamic reverse passes.

Mahrez was entirely different, not your traditional winger as he was a playmaker disguised as a winger. 

Across his 284 Premier League appearances, Mahrez registered a staggering 61 assists, relying on elite, low-tempo control to wait for overlapping fullbacks or pick out late runners in the box.

Nigerian supporters dreaming of seeing Yohanna immediately form a devastating front three alongside Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman should look out for high chance-creation metrics rather than individual sprinting stats. 

If Yohanna is a true "Mahrez clone," his expected assists and key passes will heavily outshine his raw top-speed tracking charts.

Let us face a major historical reality: Riyad Mahrez was not an overnight, plug-and-play superstar in England. 

When he first arrived at Leicester City from Le Havre, he was a raw, incredibly thin asset who spent his first full season adapting to the devastating physical contact of British football, scoring just 4 goals in his debut Premier League year. 

Even when he made his mega-money move to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, he spent significant time on the bench learning structural positional play before becoming a regular starter

Fans must expect the exact same developmental trajectory for Yohanna at Brighton. While some vocal Nigerian fans are already demanding he start immediately in the upcoming AFCON 2027 qualifiers, the reality is that the N39.2 billion teenager will likely be integrated slowly from the bench. 

Hurzeler will need to refine his raw academy habits, build his physical core, and teach him how to combine his flair with intense defensive tracking, just like Pep Guardiola did to turn Mahrez into a world-class monster.