Man City Midfielder Yaya Toure Issues Statement

Yaya Toure announces international retirement on a dramatic day for the Manchester City midfielder .

Yaya Toure has announced his retirement from international football on the day that Pep Guardiola cast fresh doubt over his Manchester City future.

Toure has only played once for City this season – and hasn’t been included in any of Guardiola’s Premier League squads.

And he is set to miss Wednesday’s EFL Cup tie with Swansea, with City’s manager revealing the Ivorian international will be exiled until he apologises for comments made by his controversial agent.

Dmitry Seluk claimed Toure had been humiliated by Guardiola’s decision to omit him from City’s Champions League squad.

While the 33-year-old midfielder’s club future looks in serious doubt, he has drawn a line under his international career – describing the decision as ‘the most difficult match of my life.’

In a statement he said: “Thank you to the Elephants!

“Writing this note was probably ‘the most difficult match of my life.’ After 14 years at the highest level, I’m sure this is the right time for me!

“The fact that I am 33 now, the intensity of training and the multitude of games are not the reasons why I am making this decision. Football is everything to me and it gave me so much in my career that I no longer feel able to set myself new goals as a player with the Elephants of Ivory Coast.

“This decision I have made has come gradually, it has slowly matured in my head. I definitely thought it necessary to wait until the qualifying stages for the next AFCON were over. It was also important for me that I do not disturb the dynamics of the national team.

Man City Midfielder Yaya Toure Issues Statement

Guardiola Axes Yaya Toure From Champions League Squad

Yaya Toure’s days at Manchester City look to be numbered after he failed to make the squad for the club’s Champions League qualifier against Steaua Bucharest on Tuesday.

The Ivorian is not carrying an injury and didn’t feature in the first league game of the season against Sunderland over the weekend.

Manager Pep Guardiola has never been convinced by the 33-year-old and was the man who sold him to City from Barcelona back in 2010 for £24 million.

Since then, Toure has been a mainstay in the City midfield and played a huge rolling in the club’s two Premier League titles in 2012 and 2014.

He also scored the winner against Stoke City in the 2011 FA Cup Final as the club ended its 35-year trophy drought.

There had been talk of Toure attracting interest from big spending Chinese clubs over the summer but nothing concrete materialised and the player was used by Guardiola in City’s preseason outings.

Leroy Sane is still nursing a hamstring injury so has also remained in Manchester, while Belgian defender Jason Denayer could be another on the way out after he was also omitted.

City take on Steaua in Bucharest tomorrow night, with the return leg at the Etihad Stadium taking place next week.

Guardiola Axes Yaya Toure From Champions League Squad

Inter Milan Keen On Signing Yaya Toure

Inter Milan are keen to sign Manchester City’s veteran title-winning midfielder Yaya Toure.

The 33-year-old Ivorian has a year remaining on his contract at the Etihad.

He was sold to City, then managed by current Inter boss Roberto Mancini, for £24m by Pep Guardiola in 2010, when the pair were at Barcelona.

Terms are still to be agreed and a source said it was ’50-50′ whether the transfer would go through.

New City boss Guardiola is not due to be unveiled by the club for another fortnight.

He is working hard on reshaping his squad, though, with midfielder Ilkay Gundogan – a £20m capture from Borussia Dortmund – unlikely to be his last signing.

Speculation about Toure’s future has been rife, given his previous discarding by Guardiola, although the Ivorian has indicated a willingness to work with the man who selected him in central defence for the 2009 Champions League final win over Manchester United.

Inter see Toure as the kind of big name that would push them back into Europe’s elite.

The club have struggled since winning the 2010 Champions League final under Jose Mourinho and failed to qualify for this season’s Champions League following a fourth-place finish in Serie A.

However, manager Mancini now has the extra financial backing supplied by Inter’s new Chinese owners, the Suning Commerce Group.

The company has taken a 70% stake in Inter as part of an overall 750m-euro (£590m) deal.

BBC

Inter Milan Keen On Signing Yaya Toure

Ex Bayern Munich star Osei Kuffour blasts CAF award over Ayew snub

Former Ghana defender Samuel Osei Kuffour says the CAF African Player of the Year award has lost its credibility following the recent decision to hand the prestigious prize to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The Gabonese striker was considered to have performed overall better than Andre Ayew and Yaya Toure in the year under review to be handed the award last Thursday in Abuja.

Aubameyang has enjoyed an excellent run at club level with Borussia Dortmund but his other competitors for the award – Toure and Ayew – featured in the finals of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations where the Ghana forward, in particular, excelled to emerge the top scorer.

The international achievements of the 2015 AFCON finalists were however considered not enough to sway votes in their favoure as Aubameyang left away with the top prize.

This has sharply divided opinions with an age-old debate as to who deserves such an award is reignited.

Sammy Kuffour who feels he was robbed of the gong back in 2002 when he was at his peak with German giants Bayern Munich now says the award has lost its credibility.

“I think this thing has lost its credibility. For some time now there have been controversies anytime CAF names the African footballer of the year,” he told Ghana Sports Newspaper.

“It shouldn’t be like that. Now people don’t believe in it again. They (CAF) decide on whom to give the award to and that is bad.

“This has really made it lose it credibility and because of that, everyone now thinks CAF is bias.”

Ex Bayern Munich star Osei Kuffour blasts CAF award over Ayew snub

African Player of the Year awards is biased against Anglophone countries, says GFA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi

Ghana FA President Kwesi Nyantakyi admits CAF must revise its way of awarding the Best African player following the disappointment of Andre Ayew at the recently held African Player of the Year awards gala.

The Ghana forward was gutted not to have been handed the award for the first team with Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being handed the prestigious gong instead.

Aubameyang’s accession to the throne as king of African football has since sharply divided opinions – with some, mostly Ghanaians – feeling Andre Ayew should have been given the award for especially his sterling performance at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations where Ghana came second to Cote d’Ivoire.

It however appears the Gabonese’s excellent form for Borussia Dortmund in the year under review was strong enough to sway the votes in his favour at the expense of Yaya Toure who also led Ivory Coast to Nations Cup glory in Equatorial Guinea.

The CAF African Player of the Year awards have been dominated by players from Francophone Africa with 17 out of the 24 editions won by players from French-speaking African countries with only 7 from Anglophone countries.

And this, Nyantakyi feels, is a biased trend which favours Francophone countries and must be looked at.

“I strongly believe that factors that have accounted for this worrying trend must be critically looked at,” he told the Ghanaian Times newspaper.

“Sincerely, I was hugely optimistic for Ayew, but surprisingly, he placed third outside my expectations – and I am really disappointed.

“Based on his performance with the national team and club side, I believe he deserved to win.”

Nyantakyi who also serves on CAF’s Executive Committee adds that the feature in Francophone African countries where there is wider access to major European leagues as against the situation of pay-per-view in Anglophone countries may be a major contributory factor.

“This gives a lot of exposure to their players,” he said.

“The situation is however different in Ghana and most Anglophone countries where access to major European Leagues is based on pay-per-view.

“It should not be enough justification for the awards to roll the way of Francophone countries all the time.”

African Player of the Year awards is biased against Anglophone countries, says GFA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi

Andre Ayew latest to question criteria for top CAF award following shocking triumph of Gabonese star

Ghana forward Andre Ayew is the latest to question the decision of CAF to hand the African Player of the Year award to Gabonese star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The Borussia Dortmund striker made history by being the first player from Gabon to win the biggest individual accolade on the continent at a ceremony held in Abuja on Thursday night.

Aubameyang’s strong club form and pretty much ok stint with the national team – scoring 24 goals in 23 games within the period under review – was considered good enough to hand him the award against the likes of Ivorian star Yaya Toure and Andre Ayew who both played in the finals of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

Toure had already expressed his disappointment of not being handed the award for the fifth successive time and now Ayew, who plays his club football at Swansea City is also demanding a clearer criteria in arriving at who is handed the top individual prize.

“They need to explain the criteria that they use to choose the winner of this trophy,” he told L’Equipe.

“I think that playing the final game of the African cup of nations should be considered. I played this game and so did Yaya. I thought that the winner will be one of us.

“Aubameyang is a friend of mine. He made a great performance this year. He scored a lot of important goals but Yaya and me, we don’t have the same position that’s why we have less goals compared to him.

“However, I think that the Africans should consider their competitions before choosing the winner. To be honest, I think that the winner should have been me or Yaya.”

Andre Ayew latest to question criteria for top CAF award following shocking triumph of Gabonese star