Yaya Touré is our new head coach!
Yaya Touré is the new head coach of Slovan Bratislava. The club’s management has agreed to a three-year contract with the 43-year-old former star player.
Yaya Touré is taking over as head coach of Slovan Bratislava. The former outstanding midfielder spent the most notable period of his career at Manchester City, having previously played for FC Barcelona. After retiring from active play, he seamlessly transitioned into coaching.
He has coached at the Tottenham Hotspur Academy and served as Roberto Mancini’s assistant coach for the Saudi Arabian national team. Starting next season, Yaya Touré will lead Slovakia’s most successful club, the record-holding 32-time champion ŠK Slovan Bratislava.
“First and foremost, I am very pleased that Yaya Touré is our new head coach. I am delighted that we have agreed on a three-year contract with him and that, starting Monday, we will begin building a new era for Slovan Bratislava together. Of course, I was aware all along that it would not be easy to replace coach Weiss. From the start, I had a clear idea and vision of the direction Slovan should take. My goal was to bring in someone with the experience of the highest level of world soccer—and who is also highly motivated to make a name for himself as a coach. I had several face-to-face meetings with Yayo Touré. It all started, however, with our first video call, during which he made an amazing impression on me. That first impression was so strong that it was very difficult for other candidates to top it. I could tell right away that we were on the same wavelength and shared a similar mindset about how to be successful. Yaya has a great desire and motivation to succeed as a coach with Slovan Bratislava. We share high goals; we’re both young and ambitious, and we’ll do our utmost to ensure the club’s success. I believe we have put together a strong coaching staff and that we will have a strong team, and together we will get to work on a new era for the club starting Monday. We have new challenges ahead of us, which I am very much looking forward to tackling together with Yaya Touré as our head coach," said Ivan Kmotrík Jr., the club’s CEO.
We will announce further details, including the composition of the coaching staff, to fans and the public on Monday at a press conference during the official presentation of Yaya Touré as head coach of ŠK Slovan Bratislava.
“I’m very happy and excited; honestly, I can’t wait for us to get to work together on Monday. My predecessor deserves great respect for what he’s achieved with Slovan. I want to build on that while also bringing something new and unique of my own. Soccer is everything to me. I love challenges and am incredibly excited to coach a great club with a rich history, a beautiful stadium, and high ambitions. I was very pleasantly surprised by the club’s facilities, which are truly top-notch. With Slovan, I want to play dominant soccer, win games, and control matches so that we can delight our fans. I’m looking forward to getting to know the players personally. I’ve already tried to study the team in as much detail as possible, but the most important thing will still be to see how the players react during training. As an assistant, I had the opportunity to work with Robert Mancini, for example, but I’ve longed for a long time to be able to work on my own project as a head coach. I appreciate that this opportunity is coming at a top club, which I recently watched in a Champions League match against Manchester City. I really can’t wait for Monday; I’m excited about what lies ahead,” said Yaya Touré, the new coach of ŠK Slovan Bratislava.
