Yaya Toure feels he is an underrated midfielder because he is African

Yaya Toure of Manchester City celebrates after scoring

Manchester City midfielder, Yaya Toure has stated that he is not recognised as one of the best players due to his race.

The Ivorian international who has been a pivotal figure in City’s midfield has kept them in the title hunt for this season. He has scored 22 goals in all competitions and has assisted quite a few. But the midfielder feels that he is undermined as a player because he is from Africa while other players are credited more even if they deliver a below par performance.

The matter was brought to the forefront by his City teammate Samir Nasri when the French international stated that Toure would be regarded as the one of the best midfielders of the game if he wasn’t from Africa.

And, Toure seems to agree with his comrade. “I think what Samir was saying was definitely true,” the 30-year-old said.

“To be honest, proper recognition has only come from the fans,’ said the three-time African player of the year. ‘I don’t want to be hard and I don’t want to be negative, but I want to be honest.”

“If we play well and we don’t have the recognition from the media, we are not going to be where we want to be,” he added.

“People regard people from Africa as animals. If you go to any part of Africa now, people will say “yes, we know him [Messi]“, but when you come to Europe and say ‘Yaya Toure’ people will say ‘who is that?’ Some will say they know my name but not know my face. But they will know Messi’s face.”

Toure is currently sidelined due to an injury he sustained during their 3-2 loss at Anfield against Liverpool. Manchester City are six points behind in the title race with a game in hand.