English Premier League: Kolo and Yaya, brotherly ties in Manchester City
This is not the first time in club football that two brothers will play for the same team, Gary Neville and Phillip Neville most famously featured prominently for Manchester United back in their younger days. At Barcelona, Frank and Ronaldo De Boer played alongside each other for the Catalan Club. At the international level, England’s Bobby and Jack Charlton were both part of the three lion’s squad which won the World Cup in 1966.
However, Yaya has said that his main attraction in Manchester City was his brother Kolo Toure. The Toure brothers are all set to line up for Manchester City in their first league game of the season against Tottenham on the 14th of August. Yaya Toure recently completed his move to City from Barcelona for an astonishing 30 million pounds.
City are building a top quality squad to compete in four competitions i.e. Europa League, English Premier League, the F.A Cup and the Carling cup. They are also striving to emerge out of Manchester United’s shadow by spending their way to success. Last season, City lost all their games against United last season and will be looking to improve on that record this season.
Yaya Toure has also become Premier League’s most expensive player as far as wages are concerned, he is the highest paid footballer in England now, after he agreed to a 200,000 pounds per week contract at Manchester City. The 27 year old midfielder, who also represented Ivory Coast in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, said that the main reason for him leaving Barcelona was his desire to play with his brother Kolo in the same team.
He revealed his bond with Kolo by explaining his life’s story. The ex-Barcelona midfielder said that, his family was very poor because their mother died in 2003 and their father worked as an army officer. He added that, in Africa, life can be quite terrible and on some days the Toure brothers were only eating one meal a day.
The younger of the Toure brothers also said that, his life changed when he signed his first contract in Europe. The Ivorian national went on to elaborate that, when he and his brother had some money they immediately started to help their family, he said that is why he loves his brother because he always wants to help other people.
Yaya Toure also said that he wants to do something important with his brother Kolo Toure. He said that they want to build a big foundation which will help young people in their times of adversity. Yaya added that, last year when he was renewing his contract with Barcelona, United were interested in him but he opted for City this season because they had not won anything and that will give him and his brother the opportunity to make history in the blue half of Manchester.
Before joining Barcelona, Yaya was at Monaco while his brother was at Arsenal. Kolo Toure won the English Premier League with Arsenal and he was also part of the famous invincible team in 2004. Yaya was also quite successful at Barcelona where he won six trophies during the 2008-2009 season.
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