Riyad Mahrez's wife 'feels safer' in Saudi Arabia over England with ex-Man City & Leicester star living in house 'ten times bigger' without threat of burglars

Ward and Mahrez moved to the Middle East when the Premier League and Champions League winner was signed by the Saudi Pro League side in 2023. The pair, who feature in Amazon's Married To The Game documentary, have been open about their switch. Ward had expressed serious concerns about making the move, but now claims to the Sunthat she is happy in Saudi Arabia.

Ward explained: "“I feel way safer in Saudi - I can actually sleep at night now.

“My house in Saudi is ten times bigger than my house in England, and if I had to stay on my own somewhere, I would choose Saudi every day of the week.

“There’s so many burglaries and bad things going on especially in Cheshire. It’s a massive problem.

“Living abroad now is great because I don’t bring anything home. It’s not worth it because we’ve been burgled in the past and it puts you off having nice things.

“I used to say to Riyad, ‘please don’t buy me a watch for my birthday, please don’t buy me these because I don’t want to be a target.’

“Now that we live in Saudi, you actually get the opportunity to enjoy and wear nice things.”

It must be acknowledged that Ward has not been living a typical life since their move to Saudi Arabia, given her husband is earning a reported £841,708 ($1,087,460) weekly salary. It also marks a sharp change in attitude from a year ago, where she explained: "I feel like it is so hard, there are times I can’t, I just don’t like it.

"I won’t lie, I had a freak out yesterday. I rang the hotel to ask 'I’m coming with my baby, what do people wear around the pool', I know it is a lot more conservative there and you have to dress a certain way.

"I said 'I just want to check when I come with a baby what is the best thing to wear, do I need to wear something covered if I am going in the water?'

"They were like 'oh no sorry, it’s just a man’s pool, it is just a gents pool'".

Mahrez's Al-Ahli are currently fifth in the Saudi Pro League and conceded a late goal on Saturday to Karim Benzema and Al-Ittihad to drop two more points. They travel to Al-Raed on Friday hoping to secure a victory.