Yaya Toure says he asked Manchester City to sign Sadio Mane from Southampton when he was at the club.
Senegal forward Mane scored 21 goals in 67 Premier League appearances for Saints from 2014-2016 before signing for Liverpool for £34m.
He went on to become an integral part of Jurgen Klopp’s side which won the 2019 Champions League and the Reds’ first Premier League title in 2019-20.
“I always wanted to play with him [Mane],” Toure said.
Toure spent eight years at City from 2010-2018, winning the club’s first Premier League title and the FA Cup.
Speaking on Match of the Day Africa: Top 10 about the Premier League’s best African player, the former Ivory Coast midfielder, 40, said: “When I was at City, at the time when he was at Southampton, I highly regarded him and I was asking some of my superiors to just sign him. But in the end it just didn’t happen.
“After that Klopp had the eyes to get him and now look what he did for Liverpool, he was brilliant. I like him, I like him as a player.”
Mane joined Bayern Munich in June 2022 for £35m after scoring 120 goals in 269 games and winning six major honours at Anfield.
Toure says the Senegal captain is a “big example” for his work outside of football.
In March 2020 Mane donated £41,000 to his national committee fighting against coronavirus. He also donated 300 Liverpool shirts prior to Liverpool’s 2018 Champions League final loss to Real Madrid for locals in his hometown of Senegal to wear during the game.
“The way he deals with things smoothly and the support he gives back to his people in his country is incredible, with what he’s been involved with,” Toure added.
“Some days I get mad when I read media about him and a journalist will ask him, ‘Why don’t you have a Ferrari and things’, and he says, ‘No, I don’t need it, I prefer to have a normal car than have a Ferrari’.
“Two months later we see him, he’s been doing things back in his home country, he’s a big example.”
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