Former Manchester City and Barcelona star Yaya Toure has been appointed to his first coaching role, taking charge of Slovakian team Slovan Bratislava.
Toure has left his position as assistant coach of the Saudi Arabia men’s national team to take up the new role. The 43-year-old had also previously spent time as an academy coach with Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.
“I’m very happy and excited, honestly, I can’t wait for us to get to work together on Monday,” said Toure. “My predecessor (Vladimir Weiss, a former City team-mate) deserves great respect for what he’s achieved with Slovan. I want to build on that while also bringing something new and unique of my own. Soccer is everything to me. I love challenges and am incredibly excited to coach a great club with a rich history, a beautiful stadium, and high ambitions.
“As an assistant, I had the opportunity to work with Robert Mancini, for example, but I’ve longed for a long time to be able to work on my own project as a head coach.”
Slovan won their 24th Slovak First Football League title last season and are the most successful club in Slovakia. They competed in the Champions League for only the second time in their history in the 2024-25 campaign, but lost all eight league phase games and finished 35th of 36 in the table.
Toure ended his playing career after leaving Chinese side Qingdao at the start of 2020. His first official assistant coaching position was with Ukrainian Olimpik Donetsk, where he spent four months.
The former Ivory Coast international began coaching the under-16s at Tottenham in August 2022 before taking up an assistant role at Belgian club Standard Liege in 2023. He joined the Saudi Arabian coaching setup under Mancini in October of that year.
As a player, Toure spent eight seasons with City between 2010 and 2018, winning three Premier League titles, two League Cups and one FA Cup. He played for Barcelona from 2007 and 2010, winning La Liga three times and the Champions League in 2009.
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