Ivory Coast and Manchester City footballer-Yaya Toure says he is not regarded as one of the best players in the world because he is from Africa. And that, to some people black players are animals and not human beings.
In an interview for Football Focus on BBC World News, Toure mentioned that he feels he does not receive enough recognition for what he has achieved.
‘To be honest, proper recognition has only come from the fans,’ said the three-time African player of the year. ‘I don’t want to be hard and I don’t want to be negative, but I want to be honest’ he said.
Apart from Toure saying the media should do more to promote African players, he added ‘If we play well and we don’t have the recognition from the media, we are not going to be where we want to be,’ he said.’People regard people from Africa as animals.’
When asked about how Eto’o and Drogba also felt as after players, if they also felt under-appreciated, the former Barcelona player replied: ‘Definitely.’
However, Yaya Toure added that ‘I am very proud to be African, I want to defend African people and I want to show to the world that African players can be as good as the Europeans and South Americans.’
In as much as i agree with Yaya that sometimes black(African) players are not giving the needed hype which could be due to their colour or something else, i dont think Yaya’s comment is fair especially when playing in the EPL. Just as the media in Ghana and Africa want to talk and write about their players because of national team interest, the English media will also do same which i don’t see anything wrong with it. I want to remind Yaya that way back in 1995, George Oppong Weah won the best player of the world and he is from Liberia. Drogba was one time regarded as the best out and out striker in the world and as i write he is a living legend of Chelsea and he still enjoy the attention of the English media because of what he did with Chelsea. I read DM every day and i can say there is always a positive story about Yaya so i don’t get him. The problem with African players is consistency. When they start getting the cash it gets into their heads. He should let his game speak for him. Yes he won EPL with Man city two seasons ago but could impress on the Champions league stage where it matters most. He was part of a Barcelona champions league wining team at some point in his career but how instrumental was he? This attitude of blaming the White for everything is not good for African development. We can only solve our problems by accept responsibility for it.