Yaya Toure has revealed that, in 2016, he told Manchester City to sign a certain African star who has gone on to become one of the best players in the world.
Toure spent almost a decade with the Citizens, helping the club win their first Premier League title and FA Cup in the process under their Abu Dhabi ownership.
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The Ivorian also won four straight CAF African Men's Footballer of the Year awards from 2011 to 2014 after impressing for both club and country in that period.
With Toure now retired and coaching, the former midfielder has revealed that he once told the Manchester giants to sign Sadio Mane, who was at Southampton at the time.
"I always wanted to play with him [Mane]," the 40-year-old told BBC Sport in an interview on Monday.
"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, [Liverpool boss Jurgen] 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."
With Mane ending up joining the Reds instead, he went on to become an integral figure in Klopp's Merseyside team that was triumphant in both the EPL and the UEFA Champions League in the years that followed.
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Toure also praised the Senegal superstar for his charity work, including multiple projects to help people in poverty in his homeland.
"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," the Standard Liege assistant manager 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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