35-year-old Yaya Toure, a former midfielder for Ivory Coast, Manchester City, and Barcelona, has according to his manager retired from playing competitive football and will instead move into a coaching role.
The Ivorian born footballer relocated to Greece in the wake of his release from Manchester City this past summer but has not appeared in any matches since Greek club Olympiakos terminated his contract this past December. During the span of his Football career with Manchester City the club managed to capture an FA Cup title, two League Cup titles, as well as three Premier League championships.
In a recent announcement his agent, Dimitri Seluk stated, Yaya decided to bring his career to a close as a champion. However, just a month prior Toure revealed during a BBC interview that he had no short-term goals that included retirement from football, and he had not ruled out continuing his playing career in the United States, Asia, or Middle East. According to Seluk, the farewell game Manchester City afforded him, in principle marked the true end of his career as a player, not just with the Manchester team, but generally.
Seluk made the revelation will speaking to Sport 24 the Russian website and later endorsed their article via his Twitter feed, saying that Yaya is one of Africa’s best players who built one of the brightest football careers in African football’s history and as such decided to leave football while at his peak. He continued relaying that it is natural for a footballer to carry on playing for as long as is humanly possible and considering his current level of physical conditioning Yaya could continue doing this at a sufficiently elevated level for at least another five years.
Yaya Toure’s excellent track record and dynamic style of play made him a firm favourite amongst major bookmakers such as Ladbrokes throughout the UK. Crowned African footballer of the year four times, and in 2009 with Barcelona captured the Champions League title, before moving to Manchester City for the next eight years where during his time with the team he scored 79 goals during his 316 appearances, including winning the 2011 FA Cup final, as well as two Italian LaLiga titles.
Prior to his European career, Toure made 101 appearances for the Ivory Coast many as captain, playing in the 2006, 2010, as well as 2014 World Cup championships. He retires from his football career having established a remarkable 100% penalty record, scoring with al 11 of his place kicks.
Seluk also added he was certain that within two years after Yaya receives his Professional coaching licence, he will become head coach at one of the major clubs and achieve huge success in his new coaching role. Apparently, Toure had already made inroads in this new direction, the legend from Africa’s Ivory Coast will no-doubt once again soon strut his way around with trophy laden pockets.
