AFRICAN PLAYERS LACK HUNGER TO
WIN TOP AWARDS - TOURE
By Tom Beck
The four-time African Footballer of the Year has
questioned the aspirations of the current crop of
African players to go above and beyond
AdChoices
African players have "fatalistic resignation" and do
not have the hunger to reach the highest level,
according to four-time African Footballer of the
Year Yaya Toure.
The Manchester City midfielder is the favourite to
take the award again this time around and is the
only player from his continent to be named on the
23-man shortlist for the 2015 Ballon d'Or.
Toure, 32, blamed the absence of other African
players on the list on a lack focus after reaching a
level of comfort.
"Africans have a tendency to slack off," he said.
"They are living in a world of their own. They
believe they made it, they are the greatest, the
strongest. But they don't understand that there
are many more hills to climb to reach the top.
"Unfortunately, many only see the bright side of
this job: the easy money, the girls, the parties, the
big cars and the beautiful clothes. And they give
up too quickly on the idea of matching the best
players."
The Ivory Coast captain added: "Many are content
with little. They send money back home and are
safe for the next few years. What is the point of
suffering?
"I have the feeling they prohibit themselves from
dreaming big with a kind of fatalistic resignation.
They believe that the highest level is not for
them."
Toure feels the current generation of African
footballers are failing to match the exploits of
greats Samuel Eto'o and Didier Drogba but
accepts the contribution the pair made is hard to
match.
"For some time now, I have also seen that Africans
are struggling to impose themselves or to exist in
larger teams," he said.
"But all this is just the fault of Didier, Eto’o,
[Michael] Essien or [Jay Jay] Okocha. And perhaps,
too, a little bit of my own, without wanting to look
pretentious.
"These players then have set the bar so high that
it is very hard to come back."
SOURCE: m.goal.com/s/en-gb/news/2886/africa/2015/11/04/16971732/african-players-lack-hunger-to-win-top-awards-toure. I AM TOTALLY IN SUPPORT OF YAYA VIEWS BUT YOU CAN'T BLAME THE AFRICAN PLAYER, OUR ECONOMY IS THE PROBLEM HERE...

Coming from the Best player in Africa. I believe he knows what he is saying.