Former Manchester City star Yaya Toure has set his sights on a prominent managerial role in the Premier League, as he takes a significant step forward in his career by assuming the position of assistant coach at Standard Liege.
At the age of 40, Toure has now joined the coaching staff of Carl Hoefkens at the Belgian club, following a stint coaching Tottenham's Under-16s. Toure expressed his desire to the Premier League in the future but believed it was the right moment to venture into coaching first-team football in Belgium.
While he is content to learn under the guidance of Hoefkens, Toure has ambitions of becoming a manager himself someday. He told the PA news agency: "One hundred per cent, that is my plan and idea. For me, I have to go step after step, I am on a learning journey."
Remaining open-minded about his future prospects, Toure added: "Why not the Premier League? I don't know how long it is going to take, maybe sooner or later, for me I am always open to it."
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The three-time Premier League winner with City acknowledged the immense challenges faced by coaches in the modern game, with their job security increasingly precarious. "You see coaches surviving for a maximum four or five months," he said. "That is what it is now, that is the reality.
"For me, I am quite patient and I have to take my steps very carefully and in the right manner. That's why I am going to Belgium because I want to learn from top coaches like Carl, who has huge experience."
Toure, who previously held positions at Ukrainian side Olimpik Donetsk and Russian team Akhmat Grozny, has not ruled out the possibility of returning to Tottenham in the future. "Tottenham did not stand in my way and they let me go and I think that was brilliant," said the former Ivory Coast international.
"If the opportunity to go back was there then why not, because what Tottenham did for me was incredible, they allowed me to work there and develop as a coach and for what they did for me I will never be able to thank them enough."
Toure made over 300 appearances for City after his arrival from Barcelona in 2010 winning multiple trophies, cementing his legacy as one of the club's greatest-ever modern-day players.
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