Yaya Touré

Gnégnéri Yaya Touré was born on the 13th May 1983 in the second largest city in Ivory Coast, Bouake.Touré started playing football from a young age, playing with friends and his brothers out in the streets and eventually joined the ASEC Mimosas youth academy in 1996.Touré originally wanted to be a striker but was pushed back to midfield/defense when playing for professional teams.He played for a number of teams during his senior career: Beveren (2001-2004), Metaluhr (2004-2005), Olympiakos (2005-2006), Monaco (2006-2007), Barcelona (2007-2010), Man City (2010-2018), Olympiakos (2018) and QD Huanghai (2019).Touré made 589 appearances for various club teams, scoring 98 and assisting 71 times.He is the younger brother of Kolo Touré, also a professional footballer who played for teams including Arsenal and Liverpool. They both played together at Manchester City and for the Ivory Coast national team.He made 97 appearances for Ivory Coast since making his debut in 2004. He played in six Africa Cup of Nations tournaments from 2006 to 2015 and in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup. He took over as the captain of the Ivory Coast after the retirement of Didier Drogba in 2014 and lifted the AFCON trophy in 2015.Touré won the 'African Player of the Year' award four times - from 2011 to 2014.His trophy cabinet is mightily impressive - including the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, La Liga, Greek Super League, Champions League and the Club World Cup.