#19 Touré Yaya Country: Ivory Coast Height: 1.91 m6-3 Birthdate: 13/05/1983 Position: Midfielder Weight: 90 kg198 lbs Birthplace: Abidjan, Ivory Coast Team: Barcelona League: La Liga

Bio

Ivory Coast's defensive destroyer in the midfield, Yaya Toure returns for his second World Cup along with older brother and defender Kolo Toure. Yaya Toure started all three matches in the 2006 World Cup as the Elephants failed to make it out of group play, but this time around he has formed an excellent pairing in the midfield with Didier Zokora. Toure netted two goals during qualifying ahead of South Africa, but his real strength is man-marking - an important attribute given Ivory Coast's group opponents of Brazil, a Portugal squad with Cristiano Ronaldo and a North Korean team that features rising star Tae-Se Jong. Toure is an imposing figure at 6-foot-3, a stellar passer, tireless box-to-box player and has a powerful right-footed shot. He helped storied Spanish club Barcelona win a treble in 2009 and La Liga this season. He began his European career with Belgian side KSK Beveren in 2001 and joined Ukraine's Metalurh Donetsk in midseason in 2003. Toure then moved to Greece's Olympiakos for one season and also played for French club AS Monaco before joining the Catalan giants in 2007 on a nine-million euro transfer.

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