Spotlight on Gnégnéri Yaya Touré By Leslie Koroma
L
eading Manchester City FC out of a 35 year trophy drought by winning the FA Cup Final in 2011 and following that with an African Footballer of the year Award
by CAF is hardly anything that will go unnoticed. Yaya Toure the Ivorian Skipper who has been the focus of the African Sports world in the last eight months as he becomes an internationally re- nowned superstar is our feature of this month. Born Gnégnéri Yaya Touré on May 13 1983 and popularly known as Yaya Toure he is a Midfielder of sizeable stature standing at 6ft 31/2in. He plays for Manchester City FC in the English Pre- mier League and is a fixture with the Ivorian Na- tional Team (The Elephants) who are currently on assignment at the 28th edition of the African Cup of Nations that is going on in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea currently to end a National trophy drought as well. Ivory Coast cur- rently boasts of one of the strongest roster of players in the international arena amongst any nation in the world save for Brazil and Spain who play at the highest level of football around the world. Yaya Toure is not your conventional midfielder but he has proved that his size is not a deterrent to his game but rather a plus. In fact it is one of the factors that make him such a standout at his position plus his blinding speed. Like Usain Bolt he has proved that bigger and stronger makes faster in the world that we live in today. Yaya is currently on his 59th cap for his National side which took on the Su-
dan in their opener for the African Cup of Nations and won by a lone Goal that was scored by teammate and fellow international Didier Drogba. Yaya is also on the same National and Club side with his older Kolo Toure who is
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