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FootballFootage of Yaya Toure Explaining Why He Left Arsenal Despite Arsene Wenger Wanting Him to Stay Emerges
- Manchester City legend Yaya Toure has opened up on his trials at Arsenal when he was just 20-years-old
- The former African Player of the Year was close to joining the Gunners in 2003 after impressing Arsene Wenger on trials
- Yaya Ture failed to sign for Arsenal but returned to England years later to join Manchester City, where he won three Premier League titles
Yaya Toure has revealed that he was left frustrated after his trials at Arsenal in 2003, forcing him to leave despite Arsene Wenger's desire to keep him.
The Ivory Coast legend failed to ink a deal after impressing Wenger on trials due to complications of securing the right paperwork.
In a video posted on social media, spotted by Sports Brief, the former Manchester City player explained his reasons for not signing for the Gunners.
"If you will remember I did a trial at Arsenal. The thing is things didn't go well, Arsene wanted me to stay for a year and Arsenal wanted me to stay to have the possibility of playing but at that time I didn't have an European passport," he said.
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"I did not also have the 75% requirement of a first team player for a national team to be able to play in England and get a visa, and those are the two factors.
"Arsene was like you can wait, I said, no. Me I want to play, I want to play now. And he was like what we will do is go back to Belgium, stay there for two years and come back. I said two years, it's too much and I was frustrated. So I was like no, I have to move."
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FootballToure left to join the Ukrainian club Metalurh Donetsk, before later moving to Greece, France, Spain and then England.
He joined Manchester City in 2010, where he won three Premier League titles.
Yaya Toure snubbed by Arsenal during trial in 2003
Earlier, Sports Brief reported that Arsenal missed the chance of signing one of the best African footballers of all time, Yaya Toure, after former manager Arsene Wenger described him as 'completely average' while on trial.
A 20-year-old Yaya Toure in 2003 auditioned at Arsenal in hopes of playing for the North London club as he started his career in Europe.
However, the versatile Ivorian failed to convince Wenger in a pre-season friendly against Barnet.