Yaya Toure has recounted how he was unable to sign with Arsenal under the direction of Arsene Wenger due to the limitations imposed by his passport.
Toure, who is widely considered to be one of the best midfielders in the history of football, began his career at the ASEC Mimosas academy before moving on to KSK Beveren in the year 2001.
Arsenal, who had just finished in second place in the Premier League, offered the midfielder a trial during the summer of 2003. Arsenal had just finished in second place.
Despite the fact that he participated in a preseason friendly match against Barnet, which ended in a scoreless draw, he was not able to secure a permanent transfer to the Gunners.
In an interview that took place on Rio Ferdinand Presents, Toure was questioned about the degree to which he was on the verge of signing with Arsenal and playing under Wenger.
It was “very close,” he claimed. A trial that lasted for six months was a lot for me to deal with.
“How did Arsene Wenger not sign you?” An inquiry was made by Ferdinand, and Toure responded by saying, “In the beginning, I believe the problem was the paperwork.”
When I go back to that historical period, I recall that if you did not have a European passport, you were required to play seventy-five percent of the time for the national team.
Alternatively, in order to play in England, you are need to hold a European passport, and this was the required path.
I believe that Arsene was willing to allow me to return to Belgium in order to continue my efforts to obtain a passport from Belgium for a period of one or two further years.
The reason for this is that I was not playing for the A-team of the national team at the time, and I said to myself, ‘It’s time for me to travel overseas, challenge myself, and try something else.’
“It was around that time that I was sold to FC Metalurh Donetsk in Ukraine, and it was the point in time when I began to feel a little bit frustrated.
“In my opinion, it was a bit of a failure since I was unable to make it, but in the end, it was that tough because my mind was divided.
“I didn’t want to get a passport to get it, I wanted to be able as well to play for my national team, but [at] that time I was very young, was a very inexperienced player, to find a place for me was difficult.”
“It would be up at the top [of my list of regrets],” Wenger said in reference to Arsenal’s inability to recruit Toure in 2014. Toure joined Arsenal in 2014.
However, it is important to keep in mind that Yaya Toure had a contract with us, and the reason he left to Ukraine was not because we did not want to sign him.
It was necessary for us to wait for his passport from Belgium. There have been errors committed by us, but he is not a mistake; it is only that he chose to travel to Metalurh Donetsk rather than any other location. It was fine for him to travel there without a passport.
Should Toure have signed with Arsenal in 2003, he would have been a part of the ‘Invincibles’ team that triumphed in the Premier League in the 2003–2004 season.
Despite this, he decided to join with Metalurh Donetsk instead, and he remained in Ukraine for a year and a half before becoming a member of Olympiacos in 2005.
A year later, he made the move to Monaco, and then in 2007, he signed with the Spanish giants Barcelona, with whom he went on to win two LaLiga titles.
In addition, Toure won the Champions League while playing for Barcelona, which transferred him to Manchester City in 2010 for around twenty-four million pounds.
After making 316 appearances for the club, the midfielder scored 80 goals and won three Premier League crowns, two League Cups, and the FA Cup. He also won the English FA Cup.
Following a period of eight years spent at the Etihad Stadium, he made his way back to Olympiacos before making his debut with the Chinese club Qingdao FC.
Although he is currently serving as an assistant coach for the Saudi Arabian national team, Toure was once a tremendously successful player for the Ivory Coast at the international level.
Over the course of his career, which spanned from 2004 to 2015, he became one of the most iconic players for his country, having gained 101 caps and scoring 19 goals.
During his final year with the squad, Toure led the Ivory Coast to victory in the Africa Cup of Nations. He retired from the team in September of 2016, making his retirement official.
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