Former Cote d’Ivoire international Kolo Toure has given his reasons why Nwankwo Kanu never inspired him while they were teammates at Arsenal, Completesports.com reports.
Toure joined Kanu at Arsenal in 2002 from Cote d’Ivoire’s giants Asec Mimosas.
After spending two seasons together and being part of the Invincibles in the 2003/2004 season, Kanu departed Arsenal for West Bromwich Albion the following campaign.
Also Read: Odegbami: The Day Before The Final – March 21 1980
And recalling his move from Asec Mimosas to Arsenal Toure said: “When I came here (England) there was none from the Ivory Coast in the Premier League,” Toure told Sportsmail.
“There was nobody for me to look to for inspiration. We had players like Kanu but not from my country. I am used to that situation, having no idol or role models. But I like the thought of trying to inspire people. They can see that things are possible.
“When I came here I felt I had to do everything properly. Because when you are the first player to come from your country, people judge every other Ivory Coast player by how you do. I was really proud of that because Didier Drogba, my brother Yaya, Didier Zokora, Gervinho and Salomon Kalou all eventually came here to express their talent.”
Kolo Toure (Arsenal) Kanu (Portsmouth). Portsmouth 0:0 Arsenal. FA Premiership. Fratton Park, Portsmouth, 13/5/07.
The 2015 AFCON winner expressed his gratitude to former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger for giving him the opportunity to become a successful footballer.
“I’m a Muslim guy and I thank Allah because I never believed I could play for the clubs I did,” Toure, a Liverpool and Manchester City defender said.
“I don’t think I was the most talented player in the world or in Africa or in my country. But I was blessed with the right moment, I was blessed to be lucky in being spotted by Arsene Wenger. Because that’s where everything started, really.
“Now the first thing is to have the knowledge. That’s why I am doing the Pro Licence. Because if you want to stand out and bring the best to the players, you have to learn the best philosophy of football playing.
“You have to learn the best way to coach players. That’s why I am doing my badge here because I know I am getting the best advice, the best management skills, the best way to coach players, communicate with players, impact the players — that is what’s most important.
“Some of my friends who have been playing maybe haven’t thought of that. But I want to do it because I think Africa needs that. Africa needs people who can inspire them. It’s difficult. You are putting yourself out there and it’s going to be hard.
“But there always has to be one person to start – and then the rest will follow.”
By James Agberebi
39 Comments
Kolo Habib Toure
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2002–2009 Arsenal 225 (9)
2009–2013 Manchester City 82 (2)
2013–2016 Liverpool 46 (1)
2016–2017 Celtic 9 (0)
National team
2000–2015 Ivory Coast 120 (7)
Honours:
Arsenal
Premier League: 2003–04
FA Cup: 2002–03, 2004–05
FA Community Shield: 2002, 2004
Football League Cup runner-up: 2006–07
UEFA Champions League runner-up: 2005–06
Manchester City
Premier League: 2011–12
FA Community Shield: 2012
Liverpool
Football League Cup runner-up: 2015–16
UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2015–16
Celtic
Scottish Premiership: 2016–17
Scottish League Cup: 2016–17
International – Ivory Coast
Africa Cup of Nations: 2015
Individual
Africa Cup of Nations Team of the Tournament: 2015
“……Now the first thing is to have the knowledge. That’s why I am doing the Pro Licence. Because if you want to stand out and bring the best to the players, you have to learn the best philosophy of football playing…..You have to learn the best way to coach players. That’s why I am doing my badge here because I know I am getting the best advice, the best management skills, the best way to coach players, communicate with players, impact the players — that is what’s most important….”
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To hell with training as a coach joor….100 caps is enough to become a coach of the National team. Ask Mr Odegbami and NFF’s booklickers. LMAO
The question here is that, Why Kanu never inspire Kolo. Then Kolo’s response….
When I came here (England) there was none from the Ivory Coast in the Premier League,” Toure told Sportsmail.
“There was nobody for me to look to for inspiration. We had players like Kanu but not from my country, shows how myopic some lads are, must one be from your country for love to reign, well Kanu was an inspiration to all. King Kanu Legendary.
it’s sad the Nigerian journalist copied and paste this article, what was said wasn’t the way it should be,Kolo never meant Kanu wasn’t an inspiration but African players can inspire young africans that they can become coaches even in the Priemer league, and that’s what he want to do so young africans can copy. FROM THE MSN NEWS, You guys should work hard complete sports.
He Kolo Toure is a fool for such statement. Does he have half of Kanu’s achievement?, just to show you how the francophone people thinks of the anglophone was in their country Abidjan in 2012 and their level of stupidity as a people and their envious spirit against Nigerians is quite evident right from the Elubo border to the main town Abidjan. I dislike those French with passion. Who needs you to be inspired by Kanu that is more respected and more decorated than you are. Such an envious idiot.
@Shamsideen did you read his comment on that article?
Your reaction is purely based on sentiment. I suggest you go back and read the article.
The writer of the article could not even back up his claim. The topic of the article and the whole article itself showed ty hat the writer is an idiot that has no business writing for public consumption.
What is Toure saying? The country’s FA should sponsor him now! Haba! With all his experiences? They can even ask him to be serving under the present national Team coach…Lol!
……a la Mr Odegbami and co. LMAO
@dr drey pour qua tu es toujour negative? Je nes pas ton temps.
Hehehehe…the truth is paining you right…? LMAO. If always saying the truth and backing it with facts and figures is what you refer to as negative, then i’ll rather continue to remain always negative, because facts and the truth will always be the negative of lies and blind sentiments. Let my truths continue to pepper people like you who always choose to turn logic on its head just to justify what is clearly wrong. Voetsek….Ek het ook nie u tyd orf….!
@Stan, être négatif, c’est parce que vous le voyez de cette façon, la vérité est nue et nue.
@Dr.Drey the day you dilute the truth you tell is the day I lose my respect for your comments here. I speak for many of your fans your comments had gathered.
Ka Chineke mezie okwu!
Pas de problem mon frere @ Chris. Le vérité ne change pas de coleur. La vérité cest la vérité tojour. Much respect to you too.
Regards…!
Tu pans que tu es inteligents plus que tout le mons?. Si se que tu pans, se fau.
Ne pas tres intelligents, mais je dit le verite tojours. If i’ve lied point it out and prove it. Otherwise let my truths continue to burn your hearts like hot coal.
“…en die waarheid sal jou vrymaak…” Jan 8:32
CS, I never read this headline on the body of the article ooooo…
“Toure: Why Kanu Was Never An Inspiration To Me At Arsenal” was never mentioned here oooo… Someone pls help me
Oh la la! il’ya boucoup des gens qui parle des langes etrange ici, mais ils n’est dits pas la verite. Je panse qu’ons dois retainer Le monsieur Rohr. Et aussi je croit que le Dr Drey dit la verite.
For the sake of people that don’t understand French, below u have the translation by google translator
there are a lot of people who speak foreign languages here, but they are not told the truth. I dress that we have to retain Monsieur Rohr. And also I believe that Dr. Drey is telling the truth
Oui tu dit la verite mais ilfaul plus insuties des gens.
If you don’t insult me, be rest assured I wouldn’t insult you. Finis on klaar…!
Our sports writers/ media are a big shame.
But here in Nigeria you can get the national team top job for being an ex player with over 100 appearances once you know the chairman or president and call nice steph. In my country here everything goes once money exchange hands.
Abeg, stop that make we hear wird.
Verstehst du?
Sag das nicht mehr @patrator!
*word
@Goal
Nett.
Sie Deutsch sind schöne.
Ich kann gut deutsch sprechen, wieso nicht, ich bin schon lange in Österreich.
Und du @hush? Wo wohnst du?
@dr drey wat makes you think you kno better than mathematical odegbami that u keep refering to him? U dont respect our national heros. Wat have you achieved in your life? the last time u agreed you are an amature football player and you sit on ur cheap gigabite to make fool of ur fathers age mate. Who is one of the nations greatest in this game. I doubt if u are not impesinating to be super eagles fan bcos the last time you sold our birthright to Egypt. You worship ighalo and you dont have respect for yobo. Wat has yobo done to you? He has bin to three worldcup, 6 nations cup and a nations cup winner why is it very easy for you to always talk him down? Why cant you be patient with him? Let me educate you if you dont know, it is normal for his like to be appointed as assistant to a national team he served in 100 occasions. Even in the university if you are a first class graduate you can be an assistant lectural in the university. In nigeria there are driving schools that isues licence for driving. But most public drivers you see learn as a condoctor to a driver. I have told you before that your i too know is sometimes irritating. Wat do you understand by apprenteship? Why do you give your car (if u have one) to a roadside mechanik for repear instead of a certified mechanical enginear(hypocrasy) you made your point many times about the appointment of yobo and we don hear am. do you expect him to lose his job before he starts? At list let the NFF learn from it if it is a mistake as you always claim. U that is chief annalyser just imagine a sport media company who is following ur comment so far admires you and appoint you as assisatant editor without a bachelor certificate in media. will you just shy away without givin a try? Or will u be happy to be constantly detolerated by your kind while celebrating your appointment? Abeg give chance jare. Eja oma kin sé alejo fun okun ke.
Hahahaha @ CollinID
Now I understand your plight. Now I see where you are coming from and why your though processes are shaped the way they are. LMAO
Now let me school you a little:
Mechanical Engineers don’t repair cars they don’t even hold tools. Mechanical engineers design mechanical systems. Anything that moves with little or no human effort or any man-made product you see around you has an input (either at the design, fabrication or manufacturing stage) of a mechanical engineer. Your roadside mechanics are not engineers, they are not even technologists, they are craftsmen….at most technicians. And most of them pass through years of apprenticeship before the graduate (what they call freedom in local parlance). During their freedom, their Ogas give them a certificate…that certificate is their badge, it is their license to practice. Even so, the first years of their apprenticeship is usually spent learning the basics, names of tools, changing tyres, washing cars after they’ve been repaired, going to buy food for their masters…..not even fixing cars. So if you are trying to justify Yobo’s appointment with that analogy….you are very very wrong. Even you as a person will NEVER give your car to a mechanic that you know is inexperienced….unless you are ready to buy another one. Even the so-called experienced ones screw up people’s cars nowadays, not to talk of the inexperienced ones…LMAO. The ones that run away from their masters to startup their own workshop without ‘doing freedom’ how do they always end up…? I’ll leave you to answer that.
Pls juxtapose that with coaching. LMAO
Secondly, except it is a quack university or a fake university (like many of the private owned universities dotting the space back in Nigeria), there is no where in the world where a fresh graduate ( even if he has a first class 100/100 GPA) is employed in the position of an assistant lecturer. NO WHERE…go and get your facts right. You must have at least a Master’s degree or be close to having one before you can find yourself in that position. And you must have at least a Doctorate or a master’s degree with years of academic and research EXPERIENCE before you can become occupy the cadre of a full lecturer. Fresh graduates are only appointed as GRADUATE or TEACHING ASSISTANTs (more like 2nd assistant coach of the U17 national team) where their responsibilities are limited to just taking tutorials, invigilating tests, helping to record marks and other basic stuff. They are never given subjects to lecture, while they are given a timeframe to obtain their masters degree otherwise their graduate assistantship will be terminated. The academia is way too organized to be thought of in the same light as our clueless NFF. Even assistant lecturers (or junior lecturers as they are called is some countries) are only allowed to handle lower level subjects and mostly allowed to be students project co-supervisors (like U17 & U20 coaches) not higher levels/final years or post-grad lecturers or main project supervisors.
Appointing Yobo as the super eagles asst coach is like making a fresh graduate the Asst Dean of the faculty simply because he graduated with a first class……LMAO. that’s how ridiculous it is. What miracles do you expect him to perform….???
If Yobo likes, let him be in 15 world cups and win 25 nations cups….but even his mates who won world cups, won champions leagues, won major trophies, played for the biggest clubs under the best coaches all went back to classroom to learn coaching and didn’t use “yes-sir, yes-sir” to start their coaching careers from the top after obtaining their coaching badges. Even Kolo Toure our African brother with a more illustrious career than Yobo didn’t wait for CIV FA to sponsor him to coaching school or placate him with a national team job.
Those public drivers you see who learnt driving just by being conductors is the reason why driving on Nigerian roads are a hell today and why so many lives are lost daily. It’s the reason why Nigerian Nigerian roads are full of madmen behind driving wheels and why you have a higher chance of dying on a Nigerian road than dying of AIDS. In countries where you are properly trained before being licensed to drive, you get to an intersection where there is no traffic light or warden and you will not hear the sound of a hooting horn nor will you see a collision and yet traffic will still be flowing seamlessly.
Our animalistic ways of doing things and justifying them in Nigeria is the reason why we remain a shithole (apologies to Mr Trump) till today.
And talking about Mr Odegbami, he remains a national hero, I don’t know football more than him because I never played football to his level…but I know something as simple as the fact that just 100 caps as a footballer doesn’t in anyway qualify you as a national team coach unless qualified coaches have run out of supply in the country. If he himself could attest that just 15mins with Otto Gloria taught him what decades of professional football on the pitch didn’t teach him, then I wonder why he stooped so low to be used as a tool for the sham we witnessed over a month ago. He should have known that his good name is FAR BETTER THAN silver or gold.
And talking of my achievements in life, even though I never made it as a full fledged professional footballer, not because I wasn’t good (I played semi-pro as a goalkeeper while studying), I’ve made it to the peak of my profession, both in the academia and in industry. With all sense of humility and without trying to blow my trumpet nor boasting, CSN space would not be large enough to take my citations. If a sports media company chooses to appoint me as an editor today, it wouldn’t be solely because I have come to run my mouth on CSN 100 times. It will rather be because I have sat on the editorial boards of many publications (academic & secular), have being a researcher for close to two decades, played some appreciable level of organized sports (and still indirectly involved in the game) and have a good knowledge and history of the game of soccer globally.
And if it still pains you that Egypt has more than double the number of AFCONs Nigeria has and that Ighalo is one of 4 all time top scorers for Nigeria, pls look for the nearest beer parlour and drink away your sorrows.
It is because of misgivings like appointing someone who isn’t a coach to the highest coaching job in the land, non qualified drivers driving public buses and putting passengers lives at risk and quack technicians operating everywhere, yet Nigerians justifying it because it suits their sentiments, that Nigeria is at its worst state tody despite all we have. That is why we are still looking for somebody’s WAEC results up and down till today, yet we expect sound governance from him.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.
Das ist schön.
Ich habe in der Schule Deutsch gelernt.
Mein Job führt mich herum.
Ich habe in Zürich und Frankfurt gelebt.
Es ist schön, auf Deutsch zu kommunizieren.
verwahren.
Which one be french wey all of una dey use comments? Abi I miss road go completesport ivory coast? Lolz
Lol @Ola. Some are speaking French, and some German (Deutsche). It’s a festival of foreign languages today. Hehehe.
As for the story, the reporter was mischievous with such misleading & sensational headline. No serious correlation between the heading and the story itself. As 50% will only glance at the headline, it’ll likely present Kolo in a bad light – unjustly so.
That said, Ivorians are typically proud and that strain of cockiness was evident in Kolo’s mumbo jumbo above. The worst (most arrogant) of them was Kalou.
Das ist wunderschön, es freut mich zu hören, dass du schon im Deutschland und Schweiz gelebt.
Und jetzt wo wohnst du denn?
The above article cum the statement from Kolo that “that is why am doing my badge” shows that Kolo is just doing his coaching certification while he has been an assistant to Rogers for more than 4years and has so been since Rogers time as coach of Celtic.
If the above is anything to go by, then why the hulla balu about the appointment of Yobo by NFF.What other higher ground can one imagine, a Scottish or premier league for a player to be an assistant without having a coaching badge yet.
The corrolary of the above is that you can actually become an assistant coach without having a coaching badge and can later pursue it.My conclusion is based on the fact that as a footballer you are qualified to be coach firstly because of the experience you have gathered over a period of time playing football, coupled with your exposure playing the game.
The game of football just like every other sport is sue generis one that enables you to pass the knowledge over unto others haven practiced same over a period of time.Your exposure to the training methodology over a period equips you not only as a player but also there after as coach.
The above not withstanding, the importance of coaching certification cannot be overemphasised most expecially when you want to have a successful coaching career,but lack of it does not preclude you to take up coaching career at least as an assistant.Infact haven gone for a coaching badge, to remain relevant in the scheme of things viz-a-vis exposure to the new ways of doing things you have to keep going for refresher courses.That is how important it is to have a coaching badge,(for the avoidance of being taken as not knowing the importance of certification).
No one,I repeat no one can can fault the appointment of Yobo if you cannot fault that of Kolo,who is just still working on his badge haven been an assistant for that long.But just as you can’t take nothing away from Yobo same can be said of Kolo as they both have played the game at the highest level.Yobo has yet to begin his coaching career so should be given time.
The Yobo that I know will definitely get the necessary qualification if he hasn’t yet. But as it stands he’s very well qualifi3d for this appointment.
Don’t mind Mr know it all
Mr “know nothing but talk loudest” what do you know other than telling fat lies in public and saying things you cannot back up with facts….LMAO
You know say if we start this argument you are looking for there will be no end to it or rather the comment section may not contain us Lol..
Hehehehehe….and that is where you got it all wrong. Before you graduate to UEFA pro, you must have passed UEFA B, and the UEFA A licenses. As a matter of fact, before you can sit on the bench of any professional club in the top division in most leagues in Europe, either as head coach or assistant, you MUST have at least a UEFA pro or being in view of it (whc takes btw 3-4 years to earn).
Rodgers is not as silly as our football administrators as to bring upon an untrained personnel into his technical crew. In as much as you can be an apprentice you can be an apprentice from the top. Infact,the top is not anywhere where an apprentice should be. Even the NFF are seriously struggling to justify the appointment of someone who isn’t a coach as the Asst Manager of the national team. That’s how terribly that move can be faulted.
Segun Odegbami in his latest article indicted himself when he confessed that just 15mins of exposure to coaching methodologies by coach Otto Gloria taught him what decades on a football field had not. If 100 caps qualifies you to be an assistant coach, then I wonder why Paulo Maldini (who has close to 700 apps for Milan) isn’t coaching AC Milan.
Yobo cannot claim to have been exposed to better methodologies or better coaches, or achieved more either at club or International level than Toure, but even so, the CIV FA has descended to the ridiculous levels making him an apprentice with what you can call the highest coaching job in the land.
The more we try to justify this sham, the less sense it makes.
Kolo Toure already had UEFA B license before he was appointed by CIV FA as Asst Manager of the U23s, he has since gone on to bag his UEFA A licence and distinguished himself enough to earn Rodgers’ support to have him as his assistant. He is currently undergoing training for his UEFA pro license. This is a man who had a career decorated by several EPL titles, played at the highest of levels, under top managers and even had more than 100 caps for his national team
That is the way things are done in places were people who have sense come from. They don’t make you a coach first before training you to become one. You train to become one before you are made one.
Our own lazy exinternationals will sit down in their parlours and complain nobody wants to give them jobs in Europe. LMAO. The likes of Toure, Olofinjana and Emenalo must be from South America.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/7758162/kolo-toure-manager-coaching-badge-arsenal-liverpool-man-city/
One day na one day, we will learn to do things right in Nigeria and stop justifying oddities because it satisfies our sentiments.
@ Goal
Ich wohne in Nigeria Aber Ich reise fur Arbeite.
Alles glucklig
Habe schön nacht
Gute Nacht sollst du sagen.
Und ich sage ebenfalls @Mr Hush
This is an English sport site. Y’all should stop confusing us with ur nonsense, wrong google-translated french or german languages.