Sports
Yaya Toure Calls Pep Guardiola a ‘Snake’ as he Reignites Feud
Former Manchester City star Yaya Toure has reignited his bitter feud with Pep Guardiola, labelling the Premier League boss ‘a snake’ in a new rant about the Spanish manager.
Conflict between the pair began with the duo still at Barcelona. Guardiola sold the Ivorian midfielder to City in 2010, preferring to use Sergio Busquets alongside regular midfield duo Xavi and Andres Iniesta.
Toure would subsequently go on to enjoy an excellent eight-year spell at the Etihad, becoming one of the league’s best midfielders of all time. However, he once again found his role in the squad reduced after Guardiola arrived in Manchester in 2016, with his agent, Dimitri Seluk, criticising the former Barcelona star for omitting his client from the Champions League squad.
‘I Won 3 PL Titles Under Guardiola – He Then Told Lies & Exiled me From Man City’
Pep Guardiola showed whose boss at the expense of a former Manchester City star who fell out of favour.
Toure Brands Guardiola ‘A Snake’ in New Rant
Although Seluk would eventually back down, Toure would then leave the club in 2018, moving to Olympiakos after playing just 10 times in the league for City in the 2017/18 season. He then went on to accuse Guardiola of ‘having problems with Africans,’ although he later claimed he was misquoted and eventually wrote to his former manager to apologise.
However, Toure slammed Guardiola in an explosive new interview with the ZACK YouTube Channel. Recalling his time under Guardiola at Barcelona, he said: “I don’t see a man, I see a snake.
“The Barcelona coach calls me back then and says, ‘You have to come back, it’s important.’ My wife says to me, ‘Are you going to listen to that nonsense? He treated you like dirt, and now he wants you to stay, and you’re going to stay? Let’s go to Manchester, my brother’.
“The guy didn’t play me all year, and at the end of the year, I shine at the World Cup (2010), and he brings me to Barcelona. My wife would tell me about him. ‘Sheytan, he’s not a man, he’s wicked.’ She sees him as a negative person.”
Other Players Who Called Out Guardiola
Toure is far from the only former professional footballer to call out Guardiola. In the past, Samuel Eto’o criticised the Spaniard when comparing him to Jose Mourinho, stating that their relationship on a personal level, “wasn’t what we hoped for.”
An even stronger statement was made by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who called the manager out in his 2013 autobiography, ‘I Am Zlatan.’ Following Barcelona’s Champions League elimination to Inter Milan, the pair became embroiled in a heated exchange, with the striker revealing: “I yelled, ‘You haven’t got any balls! You can go to hell!’
“I completely lost it, and you might have expected Guardiola to say a few words in response, but he’s a spineless coward.”
It led to an awkward reunion between the pair in July 2024, when Man City faced AC Milan in pre-season. There was an uncomfortable hadnshake and hug, before Guardiola walked away after a few seconds of conversation.
