The Toure Brothers set to start a new era of Manchester City; Yaya Toure reveals why he turned down Man United
The two brothers have reunited: only this time it’s at a club. The Toure brothers have set out to make history together and bring the newly risen Manchester City club to legendary heights. They have both said that they have had their troubles in reaching to this point, but the excitement and happiness the two are feeling playing alongside each other is worth the whole journey.
The highest paid player in the English Premier League, the newly signed player from Barcelona, Yaya Toure, has said that he has had offers from many other big clubs, but the reason he came to the Citizens was to be with his brother and achieve glory by his side.
The 27 year old Ivory Coast born player has revealed that he had been getting offers from top notch clubs like Manchester United but he refused them to join City just because he wanted to make history with his brother, Kolo Toure, another City player.
The Cote d’Ivoire defensive midfielder, Toure, is among the hot shots that the Citizens had been pursuing before the start of the next season. Their manager, Roberto Mancini, has been granted a huge pile of money to rebuild his squad and win the Premier League title this season; one of the major perks when you have a rich owner like Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Manchester City has been bidding for top players from teams all around the block, and now Yaya Toure has become the highest paid footballer in the English League. The transfer of Yaya from Barcelona summed up to 24 million pounds, which gives him a salary of 200,000 pounds per week.
While talking about his transfer from Barcelona to City, the player also said that when he was getting offers from other clubs, he made it clear that he would not be making a switch from one club to another simply because of money; the decision would be based on personal reasons and motivation.
Yaya Toure has played 74 matches for Barcelona, in which he has scored 4 times, and has appeared in 53 matches for The Elephants (Ivory Coast national football team), scoring 6 goals in them. He explained his club situation saying, “Last year Manchester United were interested in signing me. When I was talking about renewing my contract, United asked if I wanted to sign for them. In football, you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow”.
Kolo Toure joined Manchester City last season (in the summer) from Arsenal for around 16 million pounds. At Arsenal, Kolo has had 225 appearances and the Gunners has also been his only previous major Premier League club, as he had been playing for them from 2002 to 2009. The 29 year old Ivorian has had 84 caps for his country with 3 goals.
Yaya Toure also stated that the reason he didn’t enter Old Trafford was that Manchester United is one of the leading powerhouse of football while Manchester City is emerging. They haven’t won any major titles or trophies in a long time and it is a “very nice feeling” to witness a club emerge out of difficulties like that. The star player also said that it was good to see how everything was evolving so smoothly at the club.
Yaya also stated that although it would be a challenge for the team to acquire the EPL title this season, it wasn’t impossible and they were strong contenders for it. He said that other teams had admitted that fact and respected them for it. Addressing all the rumours surrounding his departure from Barcelona, he said, “It's an interesting challenge for me and I hope everything goes well. I saw a lot of things written about why I left but, for me, I wanted to play with my brother. That was very important for me. Now I've signed for City I'm very happy. Now my brother and I want to make great things happen at this club and I'm sure we'll do it.
“My motivation is to do great things with City, to finish second or third maybe, to get into the Champions League”.
Last season, Manchester City finished at the 5th position in the English Premier League with 67 points, just below Tottenham Hotspur at fourth (with 70).
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