I feel so proud as ex-Premier League player, says Yaya Toure

Former Manchester City player, Yaya Toure, walked tall and raised his head high when he was  recognised as one of the living legends of the English Premier League during his recent visit to Maldives, island nation in the Indian Ocean.

Toure has starred all over the world in his 18-year playing career. Starting out with ASEC Mimosa in his native Côte d’Ivoire, he went on to play for the likes of Monaco, Barcelona and Manchester City before moving to his current employers, Chinese club Qingdao Huanghai.

The midfielder has played for eight clubs on three continents and has also travelled far and wide in making 102 appearances for his country. One place he had never been to, however, was the Maldives.

Thanks to the FIFA Legends Programme, he has now made that trip. The Ivorian midfielder travelled to the island nation in the Indian Ocean to assess how the game is developing there and promptly found out just how popular he was with the locals.

Toure saw the development of new sporting infrastructure and, in particular, a football academy in the capital city of Malé funded by the state and the FIFA Forward programme. This project, which comprises an administrative building and artificial turf pitch, is due for completion in April 2020.

The Ivorian legend was also invited by the Football Association of the Maldives to their Annual Kids day, which brought together more than 600 children at the National Stadium, and took part in a fan interaction session, with autographs and selfies aplenty.

Toure spoke to FIFA.com about his visit. “It was my first time there and I was really curious about the place. The first thing that came to mind when I thought about the Maldives was that it was a nice place for people to go on holiday, all exotic beaches and picture-postcard scenery. And though I definitely wasn’t disappointed on that score, I realised that there’s a lot more to the country than that. It has so many other things going for it, starting with the kindness and the energy of the people. And just to top it all off, they love football too.”

On what he gained from the trip, he said: ” I visited a local school and it was a really uplifting experience. And I was surprised to see how much they knew about the English league in particular. I think it meant a lot to them to have a visit from a former Premier League player. They gave me an amazing welcome and I was really moved by it.”

Toure’s impression on meeting the children: “It’s lovely that kids recognise you and to know that you’re a role model for some of them. They’re hungry to learn. They want to have the same career as you. And they dream of travelling as much as you. It’s really flattering. It’s moments like that that make you realise just how lucky you are to have this career.

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“They have to believe in themselves but they also have to enjoy it. They need to see football as a game more than anything else. The main thing is to have fun, but you also have to entertain people too.”