In an interview with Sky Sport, Yaya Touré opened up about his views regarding Sterling, racism in football and a return to the Premier League either as a player or coach. The former City player who is currently based in China playing for Qingdao Huanghai in China League One, was sent off in his teams final match of the season after only 10 seconds of play.
Even though the team lost the match, they have already secured themselves a promotion into the China Super League as they ended the season at the top of their league with 57 points.
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36 year old Touré still believes he has another 2 years of football left in him and would like to return to the Premiership League, either as a player or as a coach.
“I think I have to start to do my [coaching] badges. Football has been my life from when I was a kid until now. Football is part of me and I can’t stop watching football or being part of it.” Touré said during his interview.
He also expressed his disappointment about how FIFA bigwigs have been dealing (or should i say ‘not dealing’) with the issue of racism in the sport. Toure experienced racial abuse first hand, most notably during his time in the Ukraine where he played for Metalurh Donetsk .
Mario Balotelli being one of the more notable recent victims of such abuse by Verona fans during his Serie A match that saw him kick the ball into the crowd before heading off the pitch. The player was convinced to stay by fellow team mates, opposition players and match officials. Touré views on the racism in football were,
“There needs to be a solution, FIFA needs people who will work on this case especially,”
“I think what players need to do now is just go out and [walk off]. Leaving the pitch will send a big message to FIFA and UEFA and show them these footballers are more important.”
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Touré also expressed his disappointment in Gareth Southgate’s decision to drop Man City player Raheem Sterling from the England squad in their Euro Qualifiers with Montenegro over the altercation between him and Gomez.
“I think people are overreacting because in training this can happen. In the game (on Sunday) they were face to face and then straight to the international team,”
“It can happen, me and brother we fight, we argue, we smash each other. The manager should just take him away.”
