Yaya won’t follow money
MANCHESTER. — Yaya Toure wants to finish his soccer career in England — and claims players are only going to China for the money.
The 33-year-old Manchester City midfielder has turned down a huge £430 000-a-week offer to go to the Chinese Super League.
He would be the biggest coup to date for the China set-up after they targeted him, Diego Costa, Wayne Rooney and Alexis Sanchez as their spending spree carries on regardless.
Toure’s current deal at City — worth £230 000-a-week — finishes at the end of the season but it is clear he has no intention of moving just for the money as he also fired a warning to other top players.
The Cote d’lvoire star believes he would only end up frustrated if he went to China and claims he wants to follow Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s example and carry on playing until his late 30s.
Toure even admitted he would end up being “angry” if he followed the likes of Oscar and John Obi Mikel to the money-laden league because the standard of football is poor and they have just gone for the cash.
Toure said: “Me to China? No . . . I’m still looking young, right? I want to play in Europe, especially in England. I want to continue doing that for a few years yet.
“It’s my idea to stay in England, I always say that if I went to China I would end up feeling angry there. Do you play football because you love football — or do you play because you want to make money? What’s the purpose?
“Me, I just want to play football because I enjoy it, I love playing. I enjoy helping my team-mates, I enjoy playing against the big players and teams.
“I want to carry on in that way. Some people have the mentality that they want to do that — to try something different. But for me, my feeling is that I want to play more football.”
Toure has become one of the biggest stars in the English Premier League after moving to City from Barcelona seven years ago.
He has forced his way back into City’s line-up despite being frozen out at first by Pep Guardiola after demanding an apology for the behaviour of his agent.
Now Toure looks a vital cog in City’s midfield again and admits that he is full of admiration for what former Barcelona team mate Ibrahimovic is doing at Manchester United.
Ibrahimovic (35) has already scored 19 goals for United this season, has got stronger through the course of the season and is leading their push for a top four finish.
It shows that the biggest stars are not necessarily finished when they hit their mid-30s and Guardiola has even suggested City may yet offer Toure a new contract at the end of the season.
That seemed an impossibility a few weeks ago and yet Toure’s appetite is there to carry on playing in the Premier League and ideally he would like