He was born Gnégnéri Yaya Touré on May 13, 1983, in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire, and most of his childhood was spent in the city of Abidjan.
A natural talent, he played football with friends and family in the streets of Abidjan from a young age. He soon followed in his older brother Kolo’s footsteps to become a key player for the local youth team, ASEC Mimosas.
Frequently named Man of the Match during his time in the Premier League, Touré has turned down the English tradition of champagne after league games in accordance with his religious beliefs.
While playing for the Belgian team, Beveren, Touré trialed with Arsenal in 2003. While the manager was interested in signing him, he had difficulties getting a work permit to play in England. Rather than waiting, Touré took a contract with the Ukrainian team Metalurh Donetsk instead, where he played for more than a year.
He started his career in 2001 by signing on with the Belgian club K.S.K. Beveren. In 2003, he moved to the Ukrainian club FC Metalurh Donetsk, then followed with a stint in Greece with their club Olympiacos FC. One season with AS Monaco in 2006, then a longer stretch with Barcelona from 2007-2010.
When Yaya arrived in Belgium to play for the mostly-African K.S.K. Beveren, his fellow club members remember him as not having any soccer shoes. They also called him ‘introverted,’ said he seemed to come from poverty. However, they recall there was something extraordinary about him…
Touré dips in and out of his nation’s soccer team, always charging them forward with success. He played with the team four five Africa Cup of Nations, and has been to the FIFA World Cup three times.
During this summer’s 2014 World Cup, Côte d’Ivoire and Japan played each other in the Group C opener, and Touré started and finished with a thigh injury. The boys brought it home, beating Japan 2-1.
Most are familiar with older brother Kolo Touré, Yaya’s teammate both on the Côte d’Ivoire national team and Manchester City, before Kolo was transferred to Liverpool in 2013. Few may be able to name Yaya’s younger brother, Ibrahim Touré, however, who plays for Al-Safa Sporting Club in Lebanon.
A spokesman for the athletic company Puma, Yaya has never forgotten his roots and frequently donates gear to children in need back in Côte d’Ivoire and other countries in West Africa, among his other charitable endeavors.
When Yaya moved to play for the French Ligue 1 side AS Monaco in 2006, he initially had issues with the manager, László Bölöni. Bölöni wouldn’t put Touré at the midfield position where he had played the majority of his career and proven himself. He was sacked in the middle of the season as Monaco was performing poorly.
Before Yaya’s first African Footballer of the Year award in 2011, the previous 12 years’ awards had gone to African forwards. As forwards receive more scoring opportunities, they occupy higher-profile positions on the field and receive recognition more often.
Yaya has commented several times on his love of playing football in England, where racist mobs targeting black players is a rare occurrence. The worst incidents occurred while he was playing in Portugal and Moscow.
A strong believer that practice makes perfect, Yaya stays behind after practice in order to continue to improve his free-kick technique in particular.
After joining a campaign against elephant poaching in October, Yaya was named a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. and helps to raise awareness about the problem, along with other environmental issues.
Yaya’s brother Ibrahim Obyala Touré, most recently a striker on Lebanon’s Al-Safa team, died tragically on June 20, 2014, of cancer. Yaya and his brother Kolo were given the tragic news after the Colombia-Ivory Coast match.
After mourning the death of his brother, Touré announced that he seeks out a long-term companionship with Manchester. Despite alleged bickering with club officials, Yaya has said that his brother’s death has caused him to focus more on the prize. “He was my brother, he loved football. When he was sick in Manchester he was watching every game I was playing in. After them I was coming to see him in hospital. I think we need to try to move on and try to think about the next step.” (The Guardian)
