Yaya Toure Has Been Appointed As Assistant Coach Of Saudi Arabia

Yaya Toure, former Barcelona and Manchester City midfielder has been named as assistant coach of the Saudi Arabia national team.

Yaya Toure, 40, will work with his former coach Roberto Mancini – who managed him during his time at Manchester City.

Recall we reported that Mancini was appointed as Saudi Arabia’s head coach in August and has overseen four matches since then.

Mancini was in charge of the Saudi Arabian side that drew 2-2 with the Super Eagles of Nigeria in a friendly match in October.

Toure played for Man City for eight years after joining them in 2010 before he commenced his coaching career in 2019.

Yaya Toure last worked for Belgian club Standard Liege as an assistant coach after working with Ukrainian club Donetsk Olympic, Russia’s Grozny also as an assistant coach.

Yaya Toure has worked as an academy coach at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League before the Saudi Arabia job.

Toure won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations and amassed 101 caps for Ivory Coast during his playing career.

The former City and Barcelona player had stints in Greece, Spain, England, and China as he won eighteen club football medals in total.

Yaya Toure

Gnégnéri Yaya Touré is an Ivorian professional football coach and former player who was born on 13 May, 1983 and played as a midfielder.

Just as we mentioned earlier, he is currently an assistant coach for the Saudi Arabian national football team.

Yaya Toure, who played center-back for Barcelona in the 2009 UEFA Champions League final, originally aspired to be a striker.

He did, however, play most of his career for club and nation as a box-to-box midfielder, where he was considered one of the best players in the world in such role.

Touré, one of the best African players of all time, won the 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 African Footballer of the Year awards.

Club Career

At the age of 18, Touré made his professional soccer debut at the Ivorian club ASEC Mimosas.

Before relocating to Barcelona in 2007, he played for Olympiacos, Monaco, Beveren, and Metalurh Donetsk.

He participated in more than 100 club games and was a member of the legendary Barcelona squad that took home six titles in a single year in 2009.

Touré joined Manchester City in the Premier League in 2010, where he scored several important goals, including the game’s opening goals in the 2011 FA Cup semifinal and championship.

In 44 years, he also assisted City in winning their first league championship.

Yaya Toure At International Level

From 2004 to 2015, Touré amassed 100 caps for the Ivory Coast, playing for the country in the FIFA World Cups in 2006, 2010, and 2014.

Additionally, he played for them in six Africa Cup of Nations tournaments: in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015. He led them to win in 2015 and finished second in 2006 and 2012.

He is the younger brother of Kolo Touré, a fellow former football player who was also his teammate for the national team and Manchester City.

Coaching career

Yaya Toure started working as an assistant manager for Olimpik Donetsk in the Ukrainian Premier League on February 10, 2021. He departed the team after four months.

He left the Russian Premier League team Akhmat Grozny on December 13, 2021, after being hired as an assistant coach on June 14, 2021, and serving in the role until June 20, 2022.

Futballnews also reported that in August 2022, Touré was hired as an under-16 coach at Tottenham Hotspur’s academy following a stint as a part-time coach.

He became assistant manager of Standard Liège, a Belgian team, in June of the following year.