Vincent Kompany has shared his praise for former Manchester City teammate Yaya Toure.
The Belgian spent 11 years at City, winning numerous domestic trophies as their captain alongside a significant number of players.
With the 37-year-old preparing to manage Burnley in his first Premier League season as a head coach, the former City defender has taken some time to reflect on his time with the Citizens, highlighting one former teammate he particularly admires.
Kompany praises Toure
Speaking in a recent video with Gary Neville on The Overlap, Kompany said this about Toure after naming him as the best penalty taker he had played with.
He said: “The thing with Yaya is I can’t name you one thing he couldn’t do.
“He was fast, he was powerful, he could defend, he had an unbelievably delicate final pass but he could smash it as well top corner.
“I mean if you look at the goal he scored [against] Sunderland, League Cup final, big moments as well.”
City signed Toure back in the 2010 summer transfer window for a fee of £24m from Barcelona and went on to see him make 316 appearances for the club across all competitions, scoring 79 goals and delivering 49 assists in the process before leaving in 2018.
As Kompany mentioned, the Ivorian scored some very significant goals during his time at City, including the winning goals in the club’s FA Cup semi-final and final back in 2011.
Having been presented with a special plaque by club chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, at the City Football Academy in recognition of Toure’s eight-year spell at the Etihad Stadium back in 2018, this highlights how valued he is and how special he was during his time there.
Overall, with all of that in mind and what Kompany had to say about him, it’s clear that not only was the 40-year-old a special player on the pitch, he was also one of the most important signings made by the club under their current regime.
