IVORY COAST: FOOTBALL / SOCCER - Yaya Toure of Barcelona FC receives hugh welcome on return home to Ivory Coast after his team's European Champions League win

Record ID: 181981

  • Title: IVORY COAST: FOOTBALL / SOCCER - Yaya Toure of Barcelona FC receives hugh welcome on return home to Ivory Coast after his team's European Champions League win
  • Date: 2nd June 2009
  • Summary: UNIDENTIFIED SOCCER FAN CARRYING HIS SON ON HIS SHOULDER AND WEARING A BARCELONA SHIRT
  • Embargoed: 17th June 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVACCIDXTXQNY71MN6FFISSXOSCU
  • Story Text: Gnegnery Yaya Toure, Ivory Coast's star soccer player for Barcelona FC, which won the European Champions League, returned home to Abidjan, to a hero's welcome on Monday (June 1).
    Barcelona deposed Manchester United as European champions with a 2-0 victory forged by a superb display of controlled attacking soccer in the Champions League final last week.
    The twenty-six-year-old midfielder brought the European Champions League trophy cup with him, much to the delight of hundreds of fans who greeted him at the airport.
    "Today is a great day for Ivory-Coast and the Ivorian population. Thank God Gnegnery brought us the cup, we touched the cup and we took pictures holding the cup," said Amidou Maiga, an Ivorian soccer fan who welcomed Toure.
    Accompanied by his brother, Arsenal central defender Kolo Toure, and his father, Yaya Toure left the airport area in an open jeep with fans and security forces running alongside.
    Yaya Toure joined Barcelona in 2007 and became the first Ivorian to play for the team.
    Toure alongside his brother, Kolo Toure, Barcelona team mate, Cameroonian Samuel Etoo and Arsenal striker, Togolese Emmanuel Adebayor are some of the top African soccer players, playing in some of Europe's major leagues.
    European soccer has now become a major attraction on the continent.
    Kolo, Yaya brother knows a thing or two about winning such a major championship, having played for Arsenal since 2002.
    "I think Yaya has always had this talent, he just needed to be in a good club to show his talent. And he is now in one of the best club in the world, which is Barcelona and I think they deserve their victory, both in (the Spanish) Championship and also in Champions League," Kolo said.
    Toure has earned the respect and admiration from many of his country man, who were emotional after seeing him.
    "I'm proud, I'm proud of Yaya, I'm very happy for him. I can only imagine what his father might be today. I'm very happy for this family. Thank you, thank you so much, I can't find the words, I can't find the words," said an unidentified soccer fan.
    Toure was scheduled to meet Ivory Coast's president, Laurent Gbagbo, before training sessions with the national team, the "Elephants" begin for World Cup and the African Cup of Nations qualifiers.
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