When will he get the recognition he deserves?

Poor Yaya.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/27074317

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha...hahahahahahahahahahha...hahahahahahaha.

Because he is from Africa...always the victim..perhaps it's more because he is shite at football? 

Great athlete though, Ill give him that, the way he runs from box-to-box is impressive, but he remains junk food for a haute cuisine lover like myself.

So he's an African Sol Campbell? And who doesn't rate him as one of the best midfielders in the world?

Saying no one appreciates you and people view you as an animal when you're on 200k a week is a bit lame.

"I am very proud to be African, I want to defend African people and I want to show to the world that African players can be as good as the Europeans and South Americans."

Who doesn't recognize African players? Eto and Drogba competed not just for who was the best African striker but the best striker in the world.

I think he is great but I don't get his comparison with Messi either. Surely he gets why Messi is more famous. Nasri stated something similar and so perhaps Toure really believes this. I'm inclined to think he may be gunning for the player of the year award and doing so in the best way possible(outside of performing well): by appealing to some sense of injustice because of race. That is quite shameful. He may have had a point 5 years ago when he was relegated to playing water carrier at Barcelona when he was clearly so much more and he has proven that ever since.

Have to agree with the man.

We pretend to get upset about words and we love racism because it gives us a chance to say how much we hate it and therefore sound very worthy.

I don't feel that strongly about racism because it doesn't have an impact on my life (yet), I'm a human being and human beings are selfish - we pretend to get upset about things that don't directly impact our lives but its rubbish.

But as a  football fan I do believe that African players have to do more to get the same recognition - you are selling to a majority white audience, its the same as the David Sneddon/Lemar Fame Academy thing   

The interesting thing about this is that whilst countries like, Italy, Spain and Eastern European countries should all be more racist than England when it comes to language - we should be more racist than them when it comes to judging people's contributions because our league is far more commercially successful and marketability plays a huge part in how we rate a player whether we realise it or not.

Look at what Torres had to do to be called the "greatest no 9 in the world" by all the papers over here and compare it what Drogba had to do to earn the same praise.

Eto'o, Drogba, Seedorf, Desailly, Toure - you have to be amazing to get recognition.

Imagine there were players who looked like Beckham/Torres and they achieved what the above had - you would never hear the end of it.

I can understand people saying that Balotelli is(was?) a waster who doesn't make much of his ability but would Alan Hansen really have described the same player as an "average talent" if he was one of ours ?

There is the general xenophobia as well - I can't be the only one who is staggered by how low key the George Boyd spitting thing was, imagine that was done by a foreigner, you would never hear the end of it.

The greatest trick they ever played was to give English players more credit for doing the same thing as foreigners whilst telling you that we favour foreigners - I love Danny Murphy with his "if that was a foreigner we'd be replaying it seven times"  

Nah it's bollocks

I think his problem is, is that he actually thinks he is better then let's say Xavi or Iniesta. Just because he is outscoring them...in the EPL though, in La Liga he felt through the ice.

There is nothing wrong with being a water carrier, and he is great at doing at what he does, but the best footballer? No.

Torres consistently scored alot of goals, which is why he was rated highly. I can't say I ever rated him higher than Drogba, i've always liked target men, but people judge strikers on goals.

As for the other players, Eto'o was rated as one of the best strikers in the world, then he went to Russia and people predictably stopped thinking of him. Seedorf, Desailly, and Toure have all been highly rated, but they aren't going to get rated any higher without playing in one of the "superstar" positions. The most highly rated players in the world are almost always forwards. I'm not sure Toure has even been that special this season, he has scored alot of penalties but he seems to be inconsistent.

George Boyd's spitting incident was as low key as Popov's for WBA, the link is they both play for clubs no one cares about. You're not going to get a national scandal at Hull City.

There are always prejudices and stereotypes that effect peoples opinions but they work both ways, there's an assumption African players will be athletes, that's how carthorses like Amdy Faye have got gigs over the years when they belong in the lower leagues, and it's why Mourinho is seen as passionate and charismatic while Alan Pardew is just an angry little c**t.

Eto'o had to do it year in year out in the biggest games, winning 3 CL's and back to back trebles in Spain and Italy.

Torres needed one good season.

Torres had a good goalscoring record over 8 seasons between 2002 and 2010.

I forgot everyone thought Eto'o was shit for years.