Who is Yaya Toure? Tuck into the Man City hero’s life who was crucial to the club reaching glory

Yaya Toure will go down as one of Manchester City’s most beloved heroes.

Though there isn’t a statue of him outside the Etihad like Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, he was just as important to Manchester City’s rise.

Yaya Toure was one of the first world-class players the club signed and he was pivotal to winning the first pieces of silverware in the Abu Dhabi era.

But his career was not without incident. From amazing goals to birthday cake drama, Toure was never far from a headline.

Here is all you need to know about the midfield lynchpin as we answer your most frequently asked questions.

How old is Yaya Toure?

Gnegneri Yaya Toure was born on May 13, 1983, in Bouake, Ivory Coast.

As of April 2024, he is 40 years old.

Yaya Toure height

Yaya Toure stands at 6 feet two inches (188cm) tall and he used his towering height to his advantage in his playing days by bulldozing through challenges.

Instagram and X accounts

The former midfielder has an official Instagram account with 3.3m followers. He tends to post pictures from his role as Saudi Arabia’s assistant manager but occasionally offers a glimpse into his family life.

He also has an official X, formley Twitter, account with 918.5k followers.

Who is Yaya Toure’s wife?

Yaya Toure married his wife Gineba in 2004 when they were both aged 20, according to The Sun.

Toure’s net worth

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Yaya Toure has a net worth of £55,939,800.00.

When did Yaya Toure retire?

Yaya Toure’s agent Dimitri Seluk, initially announced his client’s retirement in May 2019.

“Yaya has decided to end his career as a champion,” his agent Dimitri Seluk told Russian website Sport 24, via the Manchester Evening News.

However, six days later Toure signed for Chinese second division side QD Huanghai. He played just 14 times for the club. His last professional match was November 2, 2019.

Who did Toure play for?

Who signed Toure for Man City and how much did he cost?

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini signed Yaya Toure for approximately £25million in the summer of 2010 and it proved to be a bargain as he played a key role in City’s rise to glory.

Toure scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final triumph over Stoke City, the first trophy win of the Abu Dhabi era, and was pivotal in the first two Premier League title victories. He left the club in 2018.

What was Yaya Toure’s position at Man City?

Yaya Toure was an extremely versatile player whose skill on the ball and physical prowess allowed him to flourish wherever he played.

At City, he was typically a defensive midfielder but one of Mancini’s common tactical ploys was to push him into a more advanced role if City were chasing a game.

Toure also played as a centre-back on multiple occasions, especially at Barcelona under Pep Guardiola.

Yaya Toure career stats

Yaya Toure Man City stats

Toure pre and post-Man City stats

Toure’s international stats for Ivory Coast

Yaya Toure trophies and honours

Man City trophies

Barcelona trophies

Olympiacos trophies

International trophies

Individual honours

Is Yaya the brother of Kolo Toure?

Yes, Yaya Toure and Kolo Toure are brothers. Former centre-back Kolo is the elder brother by three years.

The pair were international teammates throughout their careers and linked up at Manchester City.

What is the Kolo and Yaya song?

One of football’s most enduring and iconic chants is the ‘Toure song’, which was first sung by City fans in 2012 ahead of a game against Stoke City, according to 90min.

To the tune of the 1993 techno beat No Limit by 2 Unlimited, the song sings both brothers’ names on repeat along with a dance.

The chant got so popular that Steven Gerrard was filmed singing it along with Liverpool teammates on a trip to Dubai.

“If somebody had told me 15 years ago: ‘Kolo, people will sing your name at every ground in the UK,’ I would have thought they were joking,” Kolo Toure said.

“I have never had the chance to thank the people who do that. It touches my heart.”

Though the song is 12 years old and both Toures have retired, the song is still chanted today, especially at darts events.

Lyrics: [Hands in the air[ YAYA, YAYA YAYA, YAYA YAYA, YAYA YAYA TOURE
[Hands to the ground] KOLO, KOLO KOLO, KOLO KOLO, KOLO KOLO TOURE

Was Yaya Toure at Arsenal?

Yes, but only briefly. In the summer of 2003, Toure had a trial at Arsenal.

Kolo Toure was already at the club and Yaya started a pre-season friendly against Barnet but according to a report from the BBC he: “blotted his copy book by missing Arsenal’s clearest chance of the game, heading a cross from Quincy Owusu-Abeyie wide.”

Arsene Wenger still wanted to sign him but, according to a report in the Metro, Toure grew impatient over the wait for a work permit and instead moved to Ukraine.

Yaya Toure kit number

Yaya Toure wore No.42 throughout his career at City, an inverse of the No.24 he wore at Barcelona. For his country, he tended to wear No.19.

Yaya Toure birthday cake incident

Two days after City won their second Premier League title in 2014, a bizarre controversy broke out after Toure’s agent, Dimitri Seluk, claimed the club had not honoured his client’s birthday appropriately.

This sparked confusing rumours over a missing birthday cake and a public spat that threatened Toure’s stay at the club.

“None of them shook his hand on his birthday. It’s really sick,” Seluk told BBC Sport. “He got a cake but when it was Roberto Carlos’ birthday, the president of Anzhi gave him a Bugatti.

“I don’t expect City to present Yaya with a Bugatti, we only asked that they shook his hand and said ‘we congratulate you’. It is the minimum they must do when it is his birthday and the squad is all together.

“I hear one newspaper has written that City congratulated him from Twitter but this is a joke. It is better they don’t put anything on Twitter if they are not saying anything to him.

“The club’s owners ate a 100kg cake after winning the Premier League this season but when they and the players were all together, none of them shook his hand on his birthday.

“It shows they don’t care about him.

“Of course Yaya is upset about this. If this happened to you as a journalist in the BBC and nobody shakes your hand, you will say bye bye and go to work for somebody else. It is normal.”

Seluk said all this despite the fact Toure was wished happy birthday by the club’s Twitter account and received a cake as the team flew out to Abu Dhabi for a post-season trip.

Toure initially distanced himself from the controversy by tweeting: ‘Don’t take words that do not come from my mouth seriously.’

But then later posted in a now-deleted tweet: ‘Everything Dimitri said is true. He speaks for me. I will explain after the World Cup.’

Seluk claimed Toure was ‘very upset’ and that there was a ‘big possibility Yaya will leave this summer.’

Toure stayed in Manchester after all and again downplayed the controversy the following September, saying he ‘never demanded a birthday cake.’

Speaking to The Times 18 months after leaving City, he expressed his regret over the fiasco: “It’s crazy.

“The birthday cake damaged me a lot. When people see me in France or Africa, they say, ‘You want cake?’

“I was telling him [Seluk], ‘You should not do that, no need’. I talked with Khaldoon [Al Mubarak], and I was saying, ‘It is not me, don’t worry’.

“The bad mistake I did was doing [tweeting] ‘OK, he [Seluk] is right’. That’s the one that’s killing me.

“People started to believe what he said is me. The fans were reading this, thinking bad about me, and I can understand it.

“Before the birthday cake. I accepted it [Seluk’s antics] because I respect [him]. You have to give him credit too because he has helped me through a lot. But he did a lot of bad things. It was too much.”