Yaya Touré

Touré Yaya Personal information Full name Gnegneri Yaya Touré Date of birth May 13, 1983(1983-05-13) (age 25) Place of birth Bouake, Ivory CoastHeight 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) Playing position Defensive MidfielderClub information Current club FC BarcelonaNumber 24 Senior clubs1 Years Club App (Gls)* 2000-2001
2001–2003
2003–2005
2005–2006
2006–2007
2007– ASEC Abidjan
Beveren
Metalurh Donetsk
Olympiakos
AS Monaco
FC Barcelona00 (0)
70 (3)
33 (3)
19 (3)
27 (5)
25 (2)[1] National team2 2004– Ivory Coast21 (3)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 20 November 2007.
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of 25 january 2008.
* Appearances (Goals)

Gnegneri Yaya Touré also spelled Yahya Touré or Touré Yaya (Arabic pronunciation: Yaheeyaa Tooray, Tooray Yaheeyaa) (born 13 May 1983 in Bouake, Ivory Coast), is an Ivorian footballer who currently plays for FC Barcelona. He has 21 caps for the Ivory Coast.

Touré, a midfielder, is the younger brother of Arsenal defender Kolo Touré. They have a younger brother Ibrahim Touré, who plays for Metalurh Donetsk in Ukraine.

1 Club career
2 Style of play
3 References
4 External links

Club career

Early career

Touré was born in Bouake in the Ivory Coast.

Touré joined ASEC Mimosas youth academy in 1996. After that, he went to Europe, where he played two and a half years in KSK Beveren (Belgium) and one a half year at FC Metalurh Donetsk (Ukraine).

Olympiakos

Touré moved to Olympiakos in 2005. He was nicknamed "the new Patrick Vieira" by his brother Kolo. Ahead of the 2005/2006 Premiership season he spent a period during pre-season on trial at Arsenal, but failed to seal a permanent move. He was also selected by Eurosport in 2005 as one of the most promising young players worldwide (Javier Mascherano and Sergio Agüero were included in the list as well).

Monaco

Olympiakos decided to accept a mere €4.5m from French Ligue 1 side A.S. Monaco as a result of his refusal to return to Greece for the team's pre-season training. Touré accused Olympiacos of not paying his due salaries, while Olympiacos accused him of lying in order to get transferred.[citation needed] On August 15, 2006 Touré completed his move to Monaco.

Barcelona

On 26 June 2007, Spanish La Liga club Barcelona announced the signing of Touré for a reported fee of €10m. At his official presentation with club president Joan Laporta and director of football Txiki Beguiristáin, Touré was originally given the number 17 shirt. However, Touré now wears the number 24 shirt for Barça which was vacated by Andrés Iniesta and the number 17 will be worn by Giovani dos Santos.

Touré made his debut for the club on August 26, 2007 during the league opener at Racing Santander.[2]

At the Joan Gamper Trophy 2007 match against Internazionale, he scored his first goal for Barcelona. Then he scored his first official goal with Barcelona in a La Liga match against Athletic Bilbao on 2 September 2007, despite speculation that the ball did not cross the goal line.[citation needed]

He scored his first Champions League goal for Barca against Schalke 04 in the quarterfinals. This goal proved to be the winner and advance Barcelona into a semifinal match-up against Manchester United.

Style of play

Touré is a central midfielder who stands out because of his physical abilities. Very capable in holding and protecting the ball, he excels in a variety of passes, including long, short and direct. In difficult situations, when his team is under pressure, he has the ability to make forward runs, thus he has been recognized as a box-to-box player. It is often stated in the press that his playing style is similar to a mix between Claude Makélélé and Barcelona's Josep Guardiola.

References

^ ESPN
^ Soccernet match report soccernet.com, August 26, 2007, accessed January 24, 2008

External links

(French) Yaya Touré French league stats at lfp.fr
Goal.com profile
FC Barcelona official site profile

v • d • e Côte d'Ivoire squad- 2006 FIFA World Cup1 Tizié • 2 Akalé • 3 Boka • 4 K. Touré • 5 Zokora • 6 Kouassi • 7 Faé • 8 Kalou • 9 A. Koné • 10 Yapi Yapo • 11 Drogba • 12 Méïté • 13 Zoro • 14 B. Koné • 15 Dindane • 16 Gnanhouan • 17 Domoraud • 18 Keïta • 19 Y. Touré • 20 Demel • 21 Eboué • 22 Romaric • 23 Barry • Coach: Michel

v • d • e FC Barcelona– current squad

1 V. Valdés • 3 Milito • 4 Márquez • 5 Puyol • 6 Xavi • 7 Guðjohnsen • 8 Iniesta • 9 Eto'o • 10 Ronaldinho • 13 Pinto • 14 Henry • 16 Sylvinho • 18 Ezquerro • 19 Messi • 20 Deco • 21 Thuram • 22 Abidal • 23 Oleguer • 24 Touré Yaya • 25 Jorquera • 27 Bojan • –– Cáceres • –– Dani Alves • –– Keita • –– Piqué • Coach: Guardiola

PersondataNAME Touré, Gnegneri Yaya ALTERNATIVE NAMES Touré, Yaya; Yahya Toure SHORT DESCRIPTION Professional footballer DATE OF BIRTH 1983-05-13PLACE OF BIRTH Sokoura Bouake, Cote d'IvoireDATE OF DEATH PLACE OF DEATH Slumz