Yaya Toure isn’t a happy man, judging by these comments.
The Manchester City midfielder has given an interview with French media outlet L’Equipe, in which he took aim at the British press, politicians in his homeland and anyone who has ever doubted him.
“In recent weeks, journalists have spoken about a new beginning for me. But what a new beginning?” Toure asks. This “new beginning” is evidently the beginning of a rant, because Toure has a lot to get off his chest.
“I’m coming off a season when Man City finished second in the Premier League, which is the most difficult in the world. I scored twelve goals, I also had to leave the club to join my national team who were playing the African Cup. I missed almost two months (of Premier League football), and I then I was criticised for not scoring as many goals as in the season before?”
You understand a little my disgust. Here, when it’s bad, they (the media) highlight the faults. When it’s good, they say nothing.
They have always used their little ways to annoy me to distracted. I often feel that I’m unhappy. A lot.
Here, things are never as they say should be. Shouldn’t we more interested in mentioning the positive rather than the negative, right?”
“With the Ivory Coast, it is the same … When you see people hate you when you come to defend the your country’s colours, it hurts you.
“I was denigrated, even through songs , politicians began to insult me. It hurts a lot. The national team doesn’t have anything to do with football any more. I love my country. If that was not the case, if I resented [my country], yes, I would have said ‘I quit’.”
You might think this was the end of Yaya’s rant, but you’d be wrong. The 32 year old lashes out at naysayers, or “beasts”, as he likes to call them, credits his arrival with a change in fortune for City and speaks about himself in the third person.
“We Africans, when we do a good job, we like to be rewarded, recognized. Because if a player is given fair value, we move faster. That’s what I think.
When I came to City, in 2010, I heard people say here that I would kill football.
I arrived from Barcelona as a player who had not played too much the last few months, and they did not understand. The journalists spoke of my salary (about €1 million per month), saying that it was a shame. But I was just at this club to help it grow and win titles.
Many people, beasts, I must say, have laughed at me when I said that. They wondered what I, Yaya Toure, could do to change City. And then you saw what happened next? We almost won everything.
I did it, we did it because I was not alone, of course, but no one said a thing. It’s a bit disgusting.
These people are not very smart. I do not have the habit of making shock interviews, I only say what I think. I’ve suffered for years, and now I have decided to talk. I mean everything.”
If only City had have got Yaya that birthday cake, all of this could’ve been avoided.