The Premier League turned him into a joke. The joke says more about the Premier League than the player.
Slimani arrived at Leicester for £30 million after Mahrez had won them the league. He was supposed to be the next chapter. Instead he became a punchline. Sixteen goals across multiple loan spells. A career that the English press summarised as failed.
Here is what the English press did not summarise. Slimani is Algeria's second-highest goalscorer of all time. He scored against Belgium at the 2014 World Cup. He scored against South Korea. He won the AFCON in 2019. He played in the Champions League. He scored in the Champions League.
The career arc is not the career arc that the Premier League can read. He was a Ligue 1 striker who had a difficult two years at Leicester and then went home. In England the story ends there. In Algeria the story is much larger.
He retired from international football with his place secured in the national consciousness. The Premier League gets to remember him as a £30 million flop. Algeria remembers him as the man who scored against Belgium when the country needed someone to score against Belgium.
Both memories are real. Only one of them is the full story.