Yaya Toure Quotes

#1. I just had a normal African childhood; we played football a lot, but it was always in the street and always without shoes. Boots were very expensive, and when there are seven in your family, and you say you want to buy a pair, your father wants to kill you.

Yaya Toure

#2. I have committed to contribute in raising general public awareness, as well as inspiring broad, positive, committed action against illegal trade. It is an on-going and tough fight, but I believe that if we all join our hands, we can conquer!

Yaya Toure

#3. My biggest concern and main engagement with UNEP is focused on endangered species and illegal wildlife trade - mostly elephants, rhinos, etc.

Yaya Toure

#4. The illegal wildlife trade threatens not only the survival of entire species, such as elephants and rhinos, but also the livelihoods and, often, the very lives of millions of people across Africa who depend on tourism for a living.

Yaya Toure

#5. I will never forget how I have been treated here by the fans, the club and the owners, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to finish my career as a Manchester City player.

Yaya Toure

#6. I am very proud to be African. I want to defend African people, and I want to show to the world that African players can be as good as the Europeans and South Americans.

Yaya Toure

#7. Each one of us has to work hard to achieve our collective dream for a healthier planet.

Yaya Toure

#8. On the pitch and for life generally, I keep my center by remembering that I am part of a team and if I don't do my part, I let down not just my team but everyone who follows it.

Yaya Toure

#9. The fans sing my name around the world. When I meet fans, they ask, 'How are you? All good with your family?'

Yaya Toure

#10. I represent my country, but I also represent the continent of Africa when I play in Europe. That's why it's important to try to achieve something big.

Yaya Toure

#11. Football brings you lots of lovely things, but then you have to realise that it's actually a job.

Yaya Toure

#12. You must respect people, and you must respect money. My father said to me: 'When you respect money, money will respect you.'

Yaya Toure

#13. When you spend a lot of money on one player, you want him to prove himself, but the way football works, one day you can be good, the next you can be bad, and the next after that, you can be very bad. I have come to Manchester City to work very hard and to help my friends make Manchester City great.

Yaya Toure

#14. English football is so physical and fast that when you see a space, you have to go into it with all your speed.

Yaya Toure

#15. Saving the world happens one person at a time. Be at the front of the queue.

Yaya Toure

#16. I am a midfielder who is mainly involved in the defensive phases, even if I also like to help build moves - I would say that my foremost quality is my generosity.

Yaya Toure

#17. Sometimes people fail to see that individual decisions have universal consequences.

Yaya Toure

#18. Currently poaching threatens the very existence of the African Elephant, and my worry is that if we do not act NOW, we could be looking at a future in which this iconic species is wiped out.

Yaya Toure

#19. When you get the respect of the fans, it's very hard not to be happy.

Yaya Toure

#20. To be honest, proper recognition has only come from the fans. I don't want to be hard, and I don't want to be negative, but I want to be honest.

Yaya Toure

#21. Iniesta - he is the Zinedine Zidane of the team, because he can do whatever you want him to with the ball.

Yaya Toure

#22. My family were very poor. I am one of nine siblings: two girls and seven boys. Only my brother and I play in Europe, and then three more work in Europe, and another plays in Tunisia. This family is a footballing family, but our lives have not always been good.

Yaya Toure

#23. Cristiano Ronaldo has done massive things in both the Premier League and in the Champions League, but Messi is the best though and I am convinced that next year he will win the Ballon d'Or.

Yaya Toure

#24. When we play at the World Cup, any African will back any African team. Because we want to hear the different approach to African football. We want to hear that Africans can do well, and Africans do well.

Yaya Toure

#25. People need to make a stand and be clear that trading in ivory is immoral and unacceptable.

Yaya Toure

#26. Protecting the environment is really important to everyone's welfare - that of our children, as well as that of the future generations.

Yaya Toure

#27. We can all be weak, but we all have to make a conscious decision to be strong.

Yaya Toure