The PFA Facebook Page for Yaya Toure is a Huge Success With Fans Say Digital Sports Group
(PRWEB UK) 22 September 2013 -- Yaya Toure's decision to join centre-half Kolo at the club meant they became the first brothers to play for Manchester City since Shaun and Bradley Wright-Phillips.
Standing at 6ft 2in, the 27-year-old was a popular figure among Barca fans and had attracted interest from a number of top clubs in the Premier League and around Europe.
Yaya, one of three footballing brothers, began his career as a youth with Ivorian side ASEC Mimosas in 1996 before he moved to Beveren aged 18 in 2001, spending two full seasons with the Belgian side before joining Ukrainian side Metalurg Donetsk in 2003.
After further spells with Olympiakos and Monaco enhanced his reputation yet further, Yaya became the first Ivorian to be signed by Barcelona who paid around £9m for his services in 2007.
In 2009, he won the Champions League with the Catalans as an emergency centre-half and he celebrated his second successive La Liga title with Barca last May before jetting off to South Africa – his second World Cup having been part of the 2006 squad in Germany.
Leaving the Nou Camp was no easy decision, even to join a club such as City, but Toure packed a Champions League medal and FIFA Club World Cup medal (2009). He also won La Liga twice (2008-9, 2009-10), the UEFA Super Cup (2009), and the Copa del Rey (2008-9).
After 118 appearances with the Spanish giants and almost 300 career appearances to date, City have signed one of the best midfielders in the world.
Yaya Toure wore the No.24 shirt for Barca in honour of one of his boyhood idols, Patrick Vieira, but happily decided to wear 42 at City given that his preferred number was already occupied by his hero.
He kept the 42 shirt going into the 2011/12 season but the man who scored the winning goals in the 2010/11 FA Cup semi-final and final lost nothing of his happy knack for making key contributions at crucial moments, coming up with a brace against Newcastle in City's penultimate game of the season to put Mancini's men within touching distance of the league crown.
His spell at the 2012 African Cup of Nations with the Ivory Coast ended in disappointment with the "Elephants" losing a penalty shoot-out in the final of the competition but rather than discourage Yaya, it seemed to spur him on going into the final months of the league season.
In his first match back, just hours after returning from Africa, Toure set up Sergio Aguero to score an 84th minute winner against Porto, showing City just what they had been missing for the last six weeks.
Yaya limped out of the final match of the season against QPR before half-time but was seen right in the thick of the celebrations after the game - just rewards for one of City's most reliable performers.
Head of Operations at DSG, Matthew Tait had this to say, “Yaya Toure really has no shortage of fans after his performances for Manchester City this season and we can see that by the success of his PFA Facebook page.”
“All of us here at Digital Sports Group are proud we've had the opportunity to work with The PFA to give the fans a fantastic and unique fan resource for Yaya Toure .”
DSG became the official digital partner of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) earlier this year and have since launched a number of Player Profile fan pages on social media site Facebook as well as providing official player pages on their football news site football.co.uk.
Simon Boynton, Digital Sports Group, +44 1376 336778 1404, [email protected]
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