Yaya Toure - FC Barcelona

Gnegneri Yaya Touré also spelt Yahya Touré or Touré Yaya (Arabic pronunciation: Yaheeyaa Tooray, Tooray Yaheeyaa) (born May 13, 1983 in the Ivory Coast), is an Ivorian footballer who currently plays for FC Barcelona. He has 17 caps for the Côte d'Ivoire.

Touré, a midfielder, is the younger brother of Arsenal F.C. defender Kolo Touré. They have a younger brother Ibrahim Touré, who plays for OGC Nice.

Touré joined ASEC Mimosas youth academy in 1996. After two years in KSK Beveren (Belgium) and two more at FC Metalurh Donetsk (Ukraine), he moved to Olympiacos in 2005. He was nicknamed "the new Patrick Vieira" by his brother Kolo. He is said to have attracted the interest of clubs such as Olympique Lyon, Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Everton, and A.C. Milan, but has since expressed a wish to play alongside his brother Kolo at Arsenal. Ahead of the 2005/2006 Premiership season he spent a period during pre-season on trial at Arsenal, but failed to seal a permanent move. He was also selected by Eurosport in 2005 as one of the most promising young players worldwide (Javier Mascherano and Sergio Agüero were included in the list as well). It has since emerged that Arsenal made a €7m bid in January 2006 which was rejected as Olympiacos wanted to wait to the summer to consider selling.

Olympiakos decided to accept a mere €4.5m from French Ligue 1 side A.S. Monaco as a result of the players refusal to return to Greece for the team's pre-season training. Touré accused Olympiacos of not paying his due salaries, while Olympiacos accused him of lying in order to get transferred. On August 15, 2006 Touré completed his move to the Ligue 1 side.

Touré is a central midfielder who stands out because of his physical abilities. Very capable in holding and protecting the ball, he excels in a variety of passes, including long, short and direct. In difficult situations, when his team is under pressure, he has the ability to make forward runs, thus he has been recognized as a box-to-box player.

On 26 June 2007 Spanish La Liga giants FC Barcelona announced the signing of Touré for a reported fee of €10m (£6.7m). He is the Catalan outfit's second signing of the summer 2007 transfer window following the capture of striker Thierry Henry from Arsenal. At his official presentation with club president Joan Laporta and director of football Txiki Beguiristáin, he was given the number 17 shirt. However, it has since been announced that he will wear the number 24 shirt for Barça which was vacated by Andrés Iniesta and the number 17 will be worn by Giovani dos Santos.

At the Joan Gamper Trophy 2007 match against Internazionale, he scored his first Barcelona goal.

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