Troy Deeney has revealed that he still cherishes the shirt swap he did with Yaya Toure.
The retired midfielder continues to be admired by many, with West Ham United’s James Ward-Prowse admitting that he “couldn’t get the ball off” the Ivorian when he went toe-to-toe with him.
Matheus Nunes also once revealed that he used to watch several videos of his highlights on YouTube.
Troy Deeney reveals he is still “proud” of shirt swap with Yaya Toure
Earlier this year, Scott McTominay also disclosed the fact that he used to study the Manchester City legend’s game growing up.
Initially, Troy Deeney revealed that Yaya Toure complimented him when he played against him for Watford.
“This is one of the couple that I’m proud of but this is one that I got off the big fella, Yaya [Toure]. We played against them once in the FA Cup and we lost 4-2 but I scored and played pretty well in that game”, he said on his YouTube channel.
“And obviously, he was like keep working, blah, blah, blah. I’m in the Championship those times and when I’ve seen him in the Prem [Premier League] the next time, he remembered me. We got battered, probably, can’t remember the score on the day.”
Interestingly, Troy Deeney has disclosed that Yaya Toure was the one who initiated the shirt swap and not him during his time at City.
“But he came up and was like, ‘Let’s swap shirts.’ And I was like, ‘Oh! Yaya Toure’s said that to me.’ I was gassed off that one. That’s probably one of my favourites, to be fair.”
While speaking about the players he had swapped shirts with during his career, the 35-year-old brought up Virgil van Dijk and claimed that he was the toughest centre-back he had ever faced alongside Vincent Kompany.
Shows how humble Yaya Toure is
The fact that Yaya Toure went out of his way to encourage Troy Deeney while he was playing in the Championship is an insight into his humility.
At the end of the day, the former AS Monaco attacker did not have to take the onus upon himself to have an uplifting chat with Deeney.
But Yaya Toure chose to do so anyway, which indicates how special of a character he was.
Additionally, the decorated maestro also took the initiative to engage in a shirt swap with Troy Deeney after facing him in the Premier League as well, which reiterates how much of a class act he was.
It seems like Yaya Toure was ultimately a football man through and through and was even keen on seeing players from other teams thrive.
