1 hour ago
31
The Football Interview is a new series in which the biggest names in sport and entertainment join host Kelly Somers for bold and in-depth conversations about the nation's favourite sport.
We'll explore mindset and motivation, and talk about defining moments, career highs and personal reflections. The Football Interview brings you the person behind the player.
Interviews will drop on Saturdays across BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website. This week it will be shown on BBC One at 23:50 GMT (and at 00:50 in Scotland).
Yaya Toure had a glittering playing career at clubs of the stature of Barcelona and Manchester City, and on the international stage for Ivory Coast.
Since retiring in 2019, the 42-year-old has been cutting his teeth in coaching.
Having worked in Ukraine and spent time at Tottenham's academy, he reunited with former City boss Roberto Mancini to coach Saudi Arabia.
He sat down with Kelly Somers to talk about his childhood, the coaches who have influenced his career, and sibling rivalries.
Kelly Somers: Football has been such a big part of your life - from playing to now being a coach as well. What does it mean to you?
Yaya Toure: Well, I think football gave me a lot of joy and, as well, I share this joy with some of the fans who appreciate me, and appreciate to see me play in the games. Football, as well, has helped me to put my kids on the good side and to have a good start of life. And it means a lot for me... it's been a lot for me, to be honest.
Kelly: What's your earliest memory of playing the game?
Yaya: When I was a child. My childhood was... it was was joyful, to be honest.
Being born in the family of a strong man, as a military guy - because my father was from the military - he's been someone that's not really easy to deal with it, because someone very strong, to be honest.
Kelly: When you say that he was really strong, what do you mean? Was he strict?
Yaya: You know the military men - they're very strict in the sense that they want the kids to understand and get things right. For example, I remember some point where when you do a mess in the house, it's quite direct and quite strong. You know what I mean? It's all good. And the sense of the development - my development as a person and as a player as well, you know - have this kind of focus, understanding and going straight forward to what we want to do has been good.
Kelly: Can you remember the first team that you played for? At what point did you start playing regularly and take football seriously?
Yaya: I was born in Bouake in Ivory Coast, but at seven or eight we left Bouake because my father had to do his duty in another city - Abidjan. I went there and went to school there with my brothers and friends. In the early days, I was not only doing football - I was doing lot of things like basketball, taekwondo and football as well.
I wanted to try everything because I'm a curious person. At some point when I started to show myself to different coaches, it was one who was saying like, 'Yaya, Yaya, I would really like to take you to my clubs and just have a try because you look interesting'. And I said: 'No problem... interesting.' It was quite fun in the beginning because I was having to deal with school and part-time playing football as well, and it was incredible.
Kelly: You went on to have an incredible career and played at some of the world's biggest clubs. Was there any particular coach or person that had a massive influence on making you the player that you were?
Yaya: I think my family, to be honest. Of course, in life you have the ups and downs and sometimes you have to deal with it in some moments. You need people close to you to just put their hand on your shoulder and just support you at the right moment. I don't want to forget those people who have been important in my journey as well. For example, when I was in Ukraine, or I was in Greece, even in Belgium from the beginning, it was quite challenging at some period because just imagine a young guy coming as a 17-year-old to Europe and having to adapt to the culture.
Kelly: How big a change was that for you? How tough was that?
Yaya: It was huge for me because I was surprised. For example, imagine seeing four or five different types of weather. In Africa, we have maybe two or one. I was like, 'I have to change these clothes today. Tomorrow I have to change another lot of clothes again.' And it was like a bit... I don't want to say annoying... but it was quite something normal you know, just to adapt.
Kelly: What was it like, though, leaving Africa as a youngster, when you're clearly quite a proud African as well. How was that for you?
Yaya: It was a joy, because I wanted to get out of there, to be honest! [Laughs] I wanted that for a long time. From the beginning, people... what they don't understand or don't know about me is that I've always been a fan of football, right? And when I was young, I was always close to the TV - watching football, especially European football, you know. I was watching Paris St-Germain at that time. And I have my proper idea, right? Like, if I want to be among the best players around the world, that's where I have to be. At 17, people would see that maybe as a bit weird, but I was really happy to be going there.
Kelly: You had particularly incredible times at both Barcelona and Manchester City. What was that period at Manchester City, in particular, like?
Yaya: I think it's something I'm really proud of, to be honest. In the beginning, it was quite challenging. The fact that fans, the media as well, were questioning me more about the income than what I'm going to bring to the club. And so those few people as well will be sceptical about my arrival at City, because they were thinking it was not the right move to do, and I feel so delighted that I proved them wrong. The fact that I delivered what I should deliver, that's what I'm proud of.
My second year at Barcelona, we won everything and I'll never forget the Champions League final - playing in a different position. It was quite risky because some of my team-mates were talking to me before the game, saying: 'You're going to play Manchester United and there's going to be Cristiano Ronaldo coming to you and [Wayne] Rooney is coming to you.'
I wanted to embrace the challenge. But inside, I was quite a bit worried, you know, because as a holding midfielder, it's fine. But a defender, any mistake can cost you a lot, right, and can stay in your brain for a long time. What I'm the most proud of is the opportunity to help City to start the journey to be one of the elite clubs in England now.
Kelly: When did the coaching journey begin then?
Yaya: I was sat at home and watching TV and I started feeling a little bit annoyed. I didn't take it that seriously in that moment because I want to have this kind of freedom - just relax because my body was hurt from a lot of difficult moments from games and injuries. As you can imagine, I wanted to have that time period to be myself and relax and do nothing for maybe one or two or three months. That was my plan at the beginning.
Kelly: What changed? What happened?
Yaya: After maybe two or three days, I started to be annoying. I was watching all the games and commenting on them. I knew the Premier League was going to be on at this time, La Liga is going to start at eight, I knew what time the French league starts - at seven. I was all the time, on the right time, watching TV. And I was thinking, 'what am I going to do?' And after that, I started the journey of thinking about building something suitable for me. That's how I started to get into the journey of coaching. I started to do all the badges possible.
I've been in Tottenham's academy for a while, I've been in Russia, Ukraine and the last one I was in Saudi recently. And it was something enjoyable. Not so easy but I think I needed to do that. To be ready, because I hope one day people are going to watch me with my team as a coach.
Kelly: Which coaches that you've played under have particularly influenced you, and the manager that you want to be?
Yaya: Frank Rijkaard and Roberto Mancini. When I went to Barcelona in the time of Rijkaard, it was impressive because he was always telling me, 'I don't want you to go further [forward] because you play the deep midfielder role. Xavi and Iniesta are in front of you, you can't pass them to play the ball because you're supposed to be behind them. That space is occupied by two expert players, but I think physically you can give more to the team.'
What he did, at some point - he called me. He wanted to see me face to face, have a chat, maybe look at some movie. I said: 'Why do I want to watch a movie with you gaffer?!' When everyone had gone, we went in his private room and he showed me a video with all my actions during the game we played against Zaragoza. I'll never forget that. He had a small book and he said: 'I told you not to do this, but look at that.'
From that day, when I left his office, I never talk again, ever - because it was like something new to me. In the game, he was like: 'Yaya, Yaya, Yaya.' I was like: 'What does this guy want from me? All the time, he's calling me. Why he don't call Puyol, don't call Alves or Abidal or Zambrotta. Why always me?' It was like he had something against me, but he was right. Since that day, my brain changed a lot.
The second one was Mancini. In terms of dedication, passion, you know - the session he gives and the intensity he gives, how much he gets involved.
It may be quite a bit strange, when you see a coach grab you and say, 'you have to do that, do that' and after show you some videos and push you to get better and better.
Kelly: You're one of three brothers - and Kolo and your careers have kind of been interlinked throughout. What's it been like?
Yaya: I always say that I was the best one because it was a bit of a rivalry between me and him. But at some point I felt he got to the point that he knows I was better at some part of the games than him. I think he was physically better, because that's all this kind of coming down from my father as well.
He was very focused, dedicated, and he always had that discipline. I tried to run away from him, but I cannot because he was always close to me and shouting at me. Well, me and Kolo, we've always been like that, but at some point Kolo realised that I was a bit better. He was not frustrated, because he wanted to push that boundary very far, right? Like, who's going to be the best and who's going to achieve more, and at some point I got better.
Kelly: Are you close, the two of you?
Yaya: Yeah, at some points - but in life, at the end of the day... at some point you get it where each one of you have to go in your own way. I really understand that and I respect that, to be honest.
Kelly: How would your friends and family describe you?
Yaya: Funny guy. I think people maybe think I have a lot of friends around me. But to tell you, I'm the type of guy who is very reserved and very private. You maybe don't see a lot of people around me. You're going to see a small group of people around me because ,from my point of view, I don't believe that having a lot of people around you is going to help you a lot, especially in a football career. It's so demanding and you have to make so many sacrifices, and if you are very disciplined - like my father taught me and my brother - you can have a success. But if you have too much of enjoyment, I think it's going to be difficult for you to make it. And that's what I believe, and that's why I stick with it for almost all my career.
Kelly: If you could only achieve one more thing in your life, what would it be?
Yaya: I believe I'm never going to stop because I belong to one thing - going as far as possible as a coach, maybe at some point to win trophies with my team, bring joy to the players and bring joy to the people who have been supporting me for quite a while, to be honest.
Kelly: What type of team is a Yaya Toure team going to look like?
Yaya: People will be very, very excited. Even me. I can't wait to see that. I hope at some point it's going to happen. I'm very positive and I'm really looking forward to what's going to happen.
English (US) ·