Have a look at what is Yaya Toure curse, its meaning, the story behind and if it’s true
In 2016, Pep Guardiola was hired as the manager of Manchester City. After a string of unsuccessful attempts, Manuel Pellegrini was replaced by a Spaniard.
African players at the time felt that Pep’s entrance prevented them from playing as much, including Yaya Toure.
The infamous Yaya Toure curse was a result of this circumstance.
What is the curse Yaya Toure put on Pep Guardiola and its story meaning
How Yaya Toure is watching the African curse on Man City entering the next phase . 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/oxGWyUTRlA
— Cyprian, Is Nyakundi (@CisNyakundy) February 7, 2023
Yaya Toure's curse will haunt Pep Guardiola forever pic.twitter.com/OZZKx8ebV0
— 𝙈𝙓 𝟲 🕊️ (@MagicalXavi) February 6, 2023
The “African curse” will keep Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola from ever again winning the UEFA Champions League, according to what Dmitri Seluk, Toure’s agent had said.
The Sky Blues have endured unrelenting bad fortune in the UCL since then, therefore the purported curse has undoubtedly been working for the previous few years.
Is the Yaya Toure curse true?
The curse is nothing more than a hoax that seems real. Since not everyone believes in curses, their validity is still up for debate.
Since Toure left the Etihad, the “curse” has continued to exist. The City citizens have not been Champions League champions and have experienced some of the most unlucky and humiliating exits.
Where did the Yaya Toure curse originate?
After Toure’s agent said that Guardiola would experience an “African Curse” as a result of how he treated the team’s African players, the situation gained attention from the general public (minimal game time for African players, including his client Yaya Toure).
Yaya Toure's agent Dimitri Seluk on Pep Guardiola in 2018 after the Spanish manager was accused of being unfair towards African players! 👀#PepGuardiola #ManCity #UCL #UCLFinal pic.twitter.com/jPAj7QpPI7
— Sportskeeda Football (@skworldfootball) May 29, 2021
Before his prediction, Dmitri Seluk claimed that Guardiola was “a worthless person” in a 2016 interview with Sport24.
The way he behaved toward club legend Yaya, making excuses not to let him play. He has turned the continent of Africa against him, and many African supporters of Manchester City have abandoned the club.
And I do not doubt that many African witch doctors will prevent Guardiola from winning the Champions League ever again. It will affect Guardiola similarly to an African curse. I’ll know if I’m right or wrong in due time.”
The Russian agent also referred to Guardiola’s appointment in Manchester as “nasty” because Manuel Pellegrini’s predecessor was still in command at the time.
Additionally, he made fun of the 47-year-track old’s record at Bayern Munich and maintained that, given the sums of money he has spent, his accomplishments at City thus far are not very impressive.
The 39-year-old Toure, a three-time Premier League champion, played his farewell match for City against Brighton & Hove Albion in May 2016.
However, the match against Brighton was his lone Premier League start in the prior campaign, and after Guardiola’s hiring at the beginning of 2016, he never appeared as frequently in a City jersey.
Amid the criticism of Guardiola, Seluk also made a “come and get me” request for Toure.
How was Pep Guardiola’s relationship with Yaya Toure?
Yaya stated in March 2022 that Pep Guardiola had yet to reply to his apology for his comments made about the Spaniard’s ability to collaborate with Africans four years earlier.
During the course of his trophy-laden career, he worked with Guardiola twice, the first time at Barcelona, where the two of them won the Champions League, and the second time at Manchester City in the Premier League.
Toure’s final season at the Etihad was disappointing because he only made one start in the final home game of the season, which was played with the championship already locked up.
He questioned his former manager’s treatment of Africans in an interview with France Football after leaving City, saying in the interview:
It got to the point I asked myself if it was because of my color. I am not the first. Other Barcelona players asked the question.”
Yaya Toure’s football career: Was Pep to blame for that?
Even though the manager was a former midfielder, he and the Ivorian did not always get along “sweetly.” Toure lost favour after Guardiola assigned holding midfielder Sergio Busquets, a member of the B squad, to that position.
Nevertheless, he played in 77 games for Guardiola’s team, winning the Champions League and Copa del Rey while defending centrally in the championship matches. He departed the team with two Spanish league titles as a result.
Therefore, the Ivorian had a very successful career with many accolades and titles despite the tepid relationship between the African and the management.
The story behind Yaya Toure’s Man City curse
It was sparked by Toure’s accusation, made shortly after he departed Manchester City in 2016, that Pep Guardiola and Toure don’t get along because of racism in part.
Dimitri Seluk released an extremely opinionated cartoon to demonstrate the existence of the curse soon after Manchester City’s Champions League defeat to Olympique Lyonnais in 2018.
Unfortunately, Yaya Toure’s omen against Pep Guardiola has so far come true (December 2022).
Yaya Toure’s birthday cake
Manchester City won the Premier League for the second time on May 11, 2014. But they spent so much time enjoying themselves that they failed to remember to get Yaya a cake for his birthday two days later.
The Ivorian wanted to leave the Etihad because of how out of control the birthday cake event had become. He later played down the incident but said that he had been “damaged” and that it had a long-lasting effect on his day-to-day activities due to his ignorance in not having a happy birthday cake.
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