Yaya Toure: Former Manchester City and Barcelona star wants more black managers

Ivory Coast legend Yaya Toure hopes he and his brother Kolo can pave the way for more black managers in the professional game.

“I want to see diversity,” Toure told the BBC Match of the Day Africa Top 10 “Greatest Afcon Manager” podcast.

“Most of the time people have questioned whether Africans or black coaches would be able to take lessons properly and get involved in managerial roles.

“I think now they’re going to have the answer soon.

“My brother was first – he started it [coaching], and I was second. Let’s see. I’m just challenging myself at a high level in Europe and we’ll see if opportunities come in.”

Yaya’s older brother, Kolo, 42, played in the Premier League for Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool between 2003 and 2016. He was appointed manager of Wigan last November.

The spell lasted only nine matches as, after six defeats, he was sacked by Wigan in January with the club bottom of the Championship, where they finished as they were relegated to League One.

The brothers were part of the Ivory Coast team that won the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Equatorial Guinea under Yaya’s captaincy in 2015.

It was the second time the Elephants had won the trophy after tasting Afcon success in 1992 in Senegal.

Emulating previous Afcon coaching success

Only two men in history have won Afcon as players and coaches.

The late Stephen Keshi was part of Nigeria’s winning team in 1994 and then coached the Super Eagles to success in 2013.

Before that, Mahmoud El-Gohary won Afcon as a player with Egypt in 1959 and then as their coach in 1998.

Toure, who is expected to attend Thursday’s Afcon draw in Ivory Coast, wants to become the third man in African football history to achieve the feat and hopes he gets a chance to coach his country one day.

“Definitely, definitely,” he said. “Because a few years ago there was a chance to be manager of the national team. Myself, I didn’t see me [doing it] in that moment, but it was an option.

“A lot of friends asked me to do it, but I didn’t want to do that.

“After that, [jobs] came up in Europe, and I preferred to coach here [in Europe]. But let’s see what’s going on. I’m definitely up to it.” – bbc.com