Yaya Touré blasted the African confederation for not awarding him the African Player of the Year award, the Ivory Coast starlet finishing second to Gabon and Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
In a startling outburst, Touré reportedly labelled the decision as “pathetic”, “indecent” and one that “brings shame” to Africa.
Touré helped the Ivory Coast’s golden generation to their first piece of major silverware in 2015, lifting the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations trophy in February. Touré compared this slight to what Lionel Messi experienced in 2014, when “Messi won all the trophies, but it’s Cristiano who won the award. What would you say? It’s unfair.”
It’s a fair point from the Manchester City man. Touré captained the Ivory Coast and was named to the CAF Team of the Tournament, scoring in the semi-final and converting his penalty during the final shootout. What could possibly be more important during the course of the year than the confederations own championship?
Unfortunately for Touré, his club form throughout the 2015 season is most likely what cost him the award. Far from his domineering best, Touré appeared, at times, disinterested and out of form. The previous season saw him score 24 times for City. The 2014/15 season saw that number cut in half, finding the net only 12 times.
Another factor which may have worked against Touré is his own dominance of the continent. Touré was named African Player of the Year for four straight years: 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. It's hardly surprising, and probably only human nature, that voters were keen to see a new face on the podium.
Not that this reasoning gives credence to the final decision being fair or just.
Aubameyang has been lighting up the Bundesliga this season, scoring 18 goals in 17 matches for Dortmund. However, Gabon didn’t make it out of the group stage in Equatorial Guinea, with Aubameyang registering only a single goal.
The final decision was extremely close, Aubameyang collecting 143 voter points compared to Touré’s 136.
However, Touré viewed this as a microcosm of an endemic that plagues Africa, namely not valuing or supporting their own triumphs. “I think this is what brings shame to Africa,” said Touré, ”because to act in that way is indecent…Us Africans, we don’t show that Africa is important in our eyes. We favor more what’s abroad than our own continent. That is pathetic.”
Touré concluded his remarkable rant in dispirited fashion, saying “Yaya will take care of Yaya and let Africa take care of itself. As I’ve been told many times, you can’t take care of Africa too much because Africa will be the first to let you down.”
This is all coming from the man whose teamed up with the UN to stop elephant poaching, donated large Puma product allocations to under-privileged children in West Africa in lieu of sponsorship money and helped launch a campaign to fight the Ebola outbreak.
In the end, it's impossible to say whether this was an indecent act of corruption or just the correct decision. The decision making process in handing out individual accolades is inherently flawed, the choices usually saying more about the motives and biases of the voter than the skills of the player himself.
As Arsene Wenger once said, "I'm against that debate because I think we are first a team sport...I'm against the Ballon d'Or. I'm against all these things. I've seen careers destroyed because the players are too much obsessed to get individual rewards."
In the end, which award does Yaya Touré value more? The four consecutive African Player of the Year awards, accumulated amidst heartbreak after heartbreak for the Ivory Coast? Or the African Cup of Nations winner's medal he collected during the one year he didn't actually win African Player of the Year?
