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Manchester City legend heading to Greece for final part of his career

By David Crook

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 14: Yaya Toure (R) of Manchester City celebrates with Mario Balotelli (L) after scoring during the FA Cup sponsored by E.ON Final match between Manchester City and Stoke City at Wembley Stadium on May 14, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 14: Yaya Toure (R) of Manchester City celebrates with Mario Balotelli (L) after scoring during the FA Cup sponsored by E.ON Final match between Manchester City and Stoke City at Wembley Stadium on May 14, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /
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Let me start by saying Yaya Toure is a real hero of mine. He was an absolute beast of a player and for at least three seasons was virtually unplayable.

Opposition players could not keep up. He ran the midfield with real power and precision.

He was often undisciplined in his positioning and role, seemingly stepping out with those long strides at will. That is the overarching memory of Toure, his powerful runs from midfield, knocking aside opposition players and blasting an improbable shot into the goal with his size 12 boots.

He brought joy to us fans as we sang his name and danced his dance.

Its hard to explain to anyone who is not a Manchester City fan exactly what Toure represents to us.

Toure came to us from Barcelona for a then-astronomical £24 million signing on 2 July 2010. He was part of that first major influx of stars as our new owners desperately tried to elevate Manchester City to glory in a short period.

In order to attract superstar players to a new project the Chief Executive Garry Cook was well aware they had to pay inflated transfer fees and salaries.

This new additional cost of being a ‘nouveau riche’ club saw many players arrive and seemingly each week the transfer record was broken.

Those times have of course passed now and during our current phase 2 of development we are careful to avoid paying those premiums leaving other clubs such as Manchester United to pay extortionate agent fees and player signing on fees.

Toure’s time at City

Toure joined us fresh from featuring as a player at Barcelona who had won 6 trophies in a single year. This was a player who had played in a winning Champions League final in the months before joining.

In his first season at Manchester City Toure settled well into the team and then the moments the fans really remember started to arrive.

That first real moment for me was on 16 April 2011 when Toure scored the only goal and gave a Man of the Match performance in the FA Cup semi final against Manchester United. This felt for any of us at Wembley the day the tide was turning.

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The second moment followed a few weeks later. On 14 May 2011 Toure scored the only goal of the game in the FA Cup final against Stoke. This was the moment when City claimed their first trophy in 35 years and my life as a City supporter changed forever. Toure did that for me.

Toure became the man mountain we know in the season which followed as we did the impossible and claimed our first league title for 44 years. That last game against QPR at home when Aguero scored his momentous goal in the 93rd minute to claim the title in dramatic fashion is what is commonly referenced in popular culture.

But Toure played that game and had to go off early with an injury. Maybe if he had been on the pitch all the game we wouldn’t have needed such a dramatic win.

The two immediate seasons which followed showed Toure at the height of his powers, including another league title in 2013/14 driven by his power and his goal scoring prowess.

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