Yaya Toure has opened up on his fallout with Man City manager Pep Guardiola.
The former midfielder, now a coach at Tottenham, said in an interview in 2018 that Guardiola had a problem with African players.
Toure and Guardiola had a fallout after the former midfielder’s comments in an interview
He accused the Spaniard of ‘having problems with African players wherever he goes’ and said his coaching reputation is a ‘myth’.
Toure admitted he regretted what he said and also claims to have been misquoted.
He wrote to Guardiola to apologise and says he is still open to talking to him.
“I would be more than happy to talk with him,” he told The Mail. “I’m on a different pathway now. I will be someone who tries to understand my players, different cultures and footballers, bringing them together to make a team. I will become a manager one day.”
Toure is now making the steps into management himself and recently rejected the advances of Wigan, who ended up hiring his brother Kolo.
“You can be a big player and not be a big coach,” Toure added. “Before, as a player, I was so selfish. I only looked after myself. Now, I have to understand children. I’m back to the start. And at their age, life is not so certain. You have to support them, talk to them a lot.
Toure played 316 times for City, winning three Premier League titles
“When I was a teenager, playing in Belgium, I made mistakes. With food, behaviour. I was out driving cars. If you don’t have someone who understands you, it’s tough. I want to be that person who is there for them.
“But I also want to push them to realise their dreams. I say to them, ‘Do you see Xavi and Iniesta? I played with them, I can talk to you about what they did differently. Come on, let us watch some videos’. There is not a barrier between me and them, they can always come to me.”
