Yaya Toure wanted Man City to sign Mane

Leila Mermelstein 9 months ago 3.6k |

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Yaya Toure wanted his club to sign Sadio Mane. Twitter/LFC

The former Manchester City midfielder revealed he wanted his club to sign Sadio Mane while he was still at Southampton. Toure asked the higher ups, but it never happened, and Mane went on to win six major honours with Liverpool instead.

Yaya Toure spent eight years at Manchester City, making history with the club, winning their first Premier League title and FA Cup in his stay between 2010 and 2018.

Speaking on 'Match of the Day Africa: Top 10", the former Ivory Coast midfielder discussed Sadio Mane, an opponent he was well-known for facing off against when Liverpool faced the Sky Blues, but he revealed that he'd seen Mane's talent before he joined the Reds, and has asked his club to sign the Senegalese captain.

"I always wanted to play with him [Mane]," Toure said, ""When I was at City, at the time when he was at Southampton, I highly regarded him and I was asking some of my superiors to just sign him. But in the end it just didn't happen".

"After that Klopp had the eyes to get him and now look what he did for Liverpool, he was brilliant. I like him, I like him as a player", he continued.

Mane was crucial for Liverpool across six seasons that saw them win the Champions League in 2019 and the Reds' first ever Premier League title in 2019-20. He scored 120 goals in 269 appearances for the English side, before making a £35 million move to Bayern Munich in 2022.