Yaya Toure has had a legendary career in football.
The Ivorian won it all at Barcelona between 2007 and 2010, adding two La Liga titles, a Copa del Rey and a Champions League medal to his collection.
That earned him a move to Manchester City, where the midfielder would become one of the greatest to ever play in the Premier League, with Steven Gerrard believing Toure was one of the hardest players he has ever played against.
However, football fans may not have seen the career the 41-year-old had in England play out had he quit Man City shortly after moving to the Etihad Stadium.
Yaya Toure nearly quit Man City
Toure was part of a very dominant Barcelona team before joining Man City, where the Catalan side would have the ball for long periods of the game, with opposition teams failing to get close to the stars of the La Liga giants due to their ability.
Upon moving to City in 2010, the Toure would find out that there was a lot more physical contact in English football, and the Ivorian has now revealed that a game against Stoke City nearly made him quit Manchester City and move to another European league.
“And when I went to England, I see these guys, I said, ‘What?’. You are thinking, ‘What the hell is going on here?'” Toure said on The Obi One Podcast.
“And my brother said: ‘yeah, you have to do that’. I said, ‘no, no, no, no, no’.
“We’re playing Stoke, one corner, they all fly in, and I go ‘Jesus’. I go to my brother and said, ‘I need to resign. I need to go back'”.
Toure would have fond memories against Stoke during his first season at Man City as the former midfielder would go on to score the winner against The Potters in the 2011 FA Cup final.
- READ MORE: Yaya Toure names the four players he actually told Man City to sign when he was at the club
Where does Yaya Toure stand amongst Man City greats
Toure made 316 appearances for Man City, scoring 80 goals alongside 45 assists for the Manchester club.
The former midfielder would collect every medal possible in England and things may have been different had Toure joined Chelsea, who were also interested in signing him from Barcelona.
Micah Richards believes only Kevin De Bruyne is better than Toure when it comes to Man City midfielders, while Ilkay Gundogan thinks David Silva was also above the Ivorian.
Either way, this is top company to be placed in with and it shows how highly rated Toure is by everyone at the Manchester club.
The former City midfielder will never go down as the greatest player to ever play for the current Premier League champions, but he is a name that will come up when that topic is being debated.
