YOU ASK THE QUESTIONS 

“Slide-tackling Arsene Wenger changed my career – it showed him just how much I wanted it! I was in a bit of shock, though...”

Interview Joe Brewin

T he former centre-back’s playing days are almost four years behind him, but Kolo Toure has every reason for a permanent grin on the verge of his 40th birthday.

As FourFourTwo proceeds to take him back through a life of trophies, records and personalised dance routines, Toure can’t help but giggle constantly as he recalls his remarkable career – one that included a mild assault on a football great, en route to seven major honours and two European finals. Even better, he celebrated one of his two Premier League titles alongside brother Yaya, his junior by two years.

Toure also knows that he will always be one of them, held in the highest esteem within English football: not just a champion but an Invincible, barely two years after arriving from Africa as an overexcitable 20-year-old.

Today, the Ivorian’s genial charm is put to use by Brendan Rodgers as one of his trusted coaching lieutenants at Leicester, having followed his manager from Celtic in 2019. “Being a coach isn’t like being a player, though: you actually have to go to work,” he cackles, before settling in to tackle your posers about sibling rivalry, Old Trafford battles and jigging in the shower…

How competitive with each other were you, Yaya and Ibrahim as kids? Why do you think that you and Yaya ended up making it as footballers at the highest level, at the same time? 

Ezra Cohen, via Twitter 

We were always very competitive, but that’s also because it wasn’t just the three of us – we have a family of nine, with seven boys and two girls, so you can imagine! We could play an entire possession game at home. [Laughs] As a boy I had to be competitive and fight every day, as my older brothers were bigger, stronger and better than me. I had to find my way.

My success, and Yaya’s, came from our mother and father. Dad was in the army so we grew up in a military camp, which helped us to have discipline and dedication. It taught us that there was no easy way, and that we had to work hard every single day.

ASEC Mimosas have an extraordinary history of sending the best Ivorian players to Europe. What do they put in the water there?

Jamie Gill, Coleshill 

Back in the day, this club was lucky to have a guy called Jean-Marc Guillou, [a former France international] who was like another father to me. He’s the one who took me to the academy in the Ivory Coast where I learned about the game, and made a huge change for all Ivorian footballers. At one point we had our ‘golden generation’: Yaya, myself, Didier Zokora, Salomon Kalou, Gervinho and so many other players who came through this academy [also Emmanuel Eboue, Kolo’s future Arsenal team-mate]. Guillou kept an eye out for the best young talent, and wanted good technique and intelligence that he could try to develop. From a young age we were exposed to that kind of coaching, which helped us to improve in the greatest way possible. Football is a game, but inside it there are many important details that help you to get better and become more efficient.

I’ve always wondered: how did the conversation with Arsene Wenger go after you slide-tackled him during your trial at Arsenal? 

@MaxPollard92, via Twitter 

I was really fortunate to be able to go to that trial. I spent two weeks there and, as you know, I put that tackle in on Arsene Wenger! [Laughs] But, you know, I think that slide-tackle changed my career. It showed the manager just how much I wanted to be successful, and how much I wanted to become a professional footballer. That’s how he took it, anyway... [FFT: What did he say to you immediately afterwards?] All the players were laughing and I was in shock! I thought they were going to get rid of me there and then. But Arsene is an intelligent guy: he only saw a young African boy who was keen to impress him, and gave me that opportunity to express myself and show what I was capable of doing.