KOLO TOURE made a career preventing some of the best strikers in the world from scoring goals.
Now his son is breaking through creating them instead.
Toure Sr, 42, famously played a key role at the heart of Arsenal’s Invincibles Premier League title win in 2003-04, getting his hands on the trophy just two years after his arrival from ASEC Mimosas in his homeland Ivory Coast.
The centre-back enjoyed seven years in North London, racking up 326 appearances for the club under Arsene Wenger despite slide tackling the gaffer during his trial.
He added two FA Cups either side of the unbeaten league campaign but was on the losing side in the 2006 Champions League and 2007 League Cup finals.
The 120-cap Ivorian international and Afcon winner joined Manchester City in 2009, collecting another Premier League winner’s medal in dramatic fashion thanks to Sergio Aguero’s 2012 heroics.
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And after four years at the Etihad, Toure spent three at Liverpool – where he went up against brother Yaya in a competitive match for the first time.
He was released in 2016, though, following League Cup and Europa League final defeats and headed to Celtic where he was reunited with Brendan Rodgers and picked up the Scottish Premiership, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup in his one season at Celtic Park.
Toure retired in September 2017 but stayed on at Celtic as a coach under Rodgers.
He then followed the Northern Irishman to Leicester in February 2019.
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But after two-and-a-half years with the Foxes – including a memorable FA Cup win and Europa Conference League semi-final – Toure departed to take his first managerial job.
However, the ex-defender lasted just 59 days in charge of Wigan before his sacking after failing to win any of his nine matches.
Toure is married to wife Awo and the pair have two children, daughter Sania and son Yassine.
But though Yassine has inherited the family’s football genes, his eye for goal is more like his uncle Yaya than dad Kolo.
Born in March 2006 while Toure Sr was at Arsenal, the youngster is an exciting attacker who usually operates up front or as a winger.
Yassine, 17, was in the Celtic academy but made the switch to the East Midlands with his old man and Rodgers.
But when Kolo left Leicester for Wigan, the Ivory Coast youth international stayed put at Leicester after signing a two-year scholarship contract with the Foxes in 2022.
He has been a regular in the club’s U18 Premier League campaign this term, racking up goals against Brighton, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, and featured in the FA Youth Cup defeat to Chelsea.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
