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Kolo Toure exclusive interview: Why I slide-tackled Arsene Wenger, the genius of Brendan Rodgers, and my African World Cup dream
Kolo Toure is one of those footballers who is almost impossible to dislike. The infectious enthusiasm, the manic goal celebrations, the ‘Kolo, Kolo, Kolo… Yaya, Yaya, Yaya’ chant, which still gets an airing everywhere from his old club, Manchester City, to the PDC World Darts Championships.
The flipside of Toure’s likeability is that he is not always taken as seriously as he should. This is partly down to off-the-field shenanigans such as a drugs ban that he attributed to taking his wife’s diet pills and a tabloid tale – denied by Toure – of an alleged extra-marital affair he embarked upon while pretending to be a car salesman. Then there is the story of Toure slide-tackling Arsene Wenger during his Arsenal trial – although more on that later.
But on the pitch Toure was a first-class defender, a totem of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ and a Premier League winner with Manchester City - as well as performing with distinction for Liverpool and Celtic. Since retiring in 2017, Toure has been forging a reputation as a high-quality coach, honing his craft for two years at Celtic under Brendan Rodgers, and then joining him when he left for Leicester City in February. He plans to become a manager and, as a proud Ivorian, there is one burning ambition that is governing his early steps into coaching.
"My dream is to win the World Cup with an African team, for my continent," he says. "I love Africa. I am very grateful for everything I have in Europe but everything I’m learning I want to help my continent to get better - in football as well."
To propel Toure towards achieving those aims, he is currently studying for his Uefa Pro License badge - the highest coaching certification - and until recently was the Ivory Coast's assistant manager. Since leaving Celtic, he has given up the role to focus on Leicester, which has provided more opportunity to observe Rodgers - who managed him at Liverpool and Celtic - up close. Over their two years working together, it is Rodgers' man-management and tactical nous that have stood out for Toure.
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"I’m learning from him every day," said Toure, speaking to Telegraph Sport on the eve of his switch from Celtic and sounding so positive that it could almost be Rodgers speaking. "He’s very intelligent, organised, gives amazing detail to the players. He is the one who organises everything. He is the maestro, it's really good to work with him and see what he does on a daily basis.
"He prepares everything very well and his reading of the game is incredible. He can change the situation in a game so easily. He's a top manager."
Hearing Toure talk so passionately about management, one wonders if he thinks the caricature of him as a bit of a joker is unfair. Toure is phlegmatic about how he is perceived, and insists that should he one day become a top-level manager, he will never lose his sense of fun.
"For me, life is about being happy," he says. "Life is about enjoying and that’s it. When I played football I wanted to make people happy. This is the way I am. I can’t be someone else.
"I want to work with people and make sure they are happy in that environment. You can win and you can lose games. But it has to be an environment where people come in and enjoy themselves. When you give your best, you enjoy your time. But sometimes people forget that football is a game."
He pauses. "What does 'game' mean for you?" Toure asks. "It should be fun," I reply.
"Thank you very much, that’s it," he says. "And the fun comes when you prepare your team well, giving everything with hard work. That's what I’ve been doing my whole career."
Nowhere in his playing days was this blend of fun and ferocity more apparent than at Arsenal where Toure enjoyed the best years of his career between 2002 and 2009. Toure's time in north London was almost over before it had begun, however, after one of the most calamitous trials in football history.
Having taken out both Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp with crunching tackles, Toure was already on thin ice. By the time he launched into a two-footed challenge on a third victim, it appeared Toure's Arsenal chance had gone - especially when he looked up to realise the man he had just sent crashing to the floor was Wenger. Admiring his tenacity, Wenger - with an ice pack on his ankle - signed him up.
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"It’s true, absolutely," Toure says, reflecting on the memory and letting out a characteristically hearty laugh. "Did I think my dream was over? Well of course you’re always scared if you tackle the manager of the club. I haven’t done it on purpose but that kind of thing can happen."
They appeared to happen quite a lot at Arsenal in those days, as Arsenal strived for football's biggest prizes.
"Training was really intense - sometimes more so than matches," Toure says. "It was really, really challenging. Everybody wanted to win every game and occasionally there would be fights between the players. The team was full of spirit and winners.
"Martin Keown was really competitive but Thierry Henry was similar, he wanted to win every game. He was fuming when he was losing games at training."
Then there was the chance to glimpse technical brilliance at close quarters, and understand the work that goes in to honing genius. "My favourite was Dennis Bergkamp," Toure says. "He was an amazing player, but also a top professional. A really top man. It was so difficult to mark him in training. His vision, he was so intelligent. He knew what to do at the exact time. Technically he was amazing, tactically amazing and really, really intelligent. He had all the tools."
A sense of fun - that word again - was, in Toure's view, the final ingredient in Wenger's all-conquering team. "We all got on so well and I still speak to them now. I saw Jens Lehmann, Patrick Vieira recently, and spoke on the phone with Sol Campbell. Ray Parlour, Martin Keown. All of them. We sometimes speak about the old days but also about the future. The past is the past, you move on, eh?"
Toure has certainly done that since retiring two years ago. Now, as he enters the next phase in his career, Toure will be hoping that the seeds of a landmark victory for Africa are being sown in the east Midlands.
