Toure looking to make history

Since the very beginning, footballers have been taking it one game at a time. Yaya Toure is the exception, however, ignoring the cliché and fixing his gaze on the distant future. The Ivorian is looking to this lifetime and beyond. Manchester City is his legacy project.

GettyImagesYaya Toure wants to be remembered as a City legend.

"If we win the Premier League this year, all the fans will go crazy about it," he said. "You can make history and for the rest of your life or after you die, people will continue to talk about what you did for the club. That's what I want."

During his 15 months in Manchester, Toure has ended City's 35-year trophy drought, his winner in May's FA Cup final finally reacquainting them with silverware. But 2011 is also notable for the passing of Mike Doyle and Neil Young, two stalwarts of the last sky blue side to be crowned England's best. They are remembered at the Etihad Stadium, just as Toure hopes he will be.

The contrast is supplied by his former employers. At Barcelona, the 28-year-old was another cog in the wheel - albeit one part of a particularly stylish and successful vehicle. At City, he hopes he can be the catalyst for change, driving them forwards.

"That's why I came to Man City," he added, "because last year when we won the FA Cup, all the people around the club were happy. It is incredible. It's not like Barcelona: when they win the league, it is normal."

The cynical interpretation is that signing for City is prompted more by avarice than ambition, especially with Toure reported to have landed himself a £220,000-a-week deal. But for Yaya, the opportunity to play with brother Kolo was a factor and, he insists, others share his desire to make an indelible mark.

"The first time I met Samir Nasri or David Silva or Sergio Aguero they said to me, 'Yaya, we have come here to make history' and we are excited to be part of this history," he explained. "When you go to [Real] Madrid or Barcelona, you don't go there to make history because they already have it, but this is special. In 2011, you have a big chance to make history for one club."

The aim, he says, is to build a dynasty. That requires stability and continuity. In that respect, the rivals are the role model, with Manchester United, like Barcelona, the clubs Toure hopes to emulate. It is why he believes Roberto Mancini's contract, which expires in 2013, should be extended.

"I think it is important to have stability because he is doing a fantastic job," he said. "The way Barcelona play, they play like that a long time. At Man City we try to find a way. That's why it's very important when your manager does well that you have to keep him for a long time, to let him make his mark on the club, because the first team, the second team, the third team, they have to all play the same way. That's the way [Sir Alex] Ferguson did it and that's the way Barcelona did it. United with Ferguson is a great example, because Ferguson makes this club."

Making Manchester City, to borrow Toure's phrase, involves many aspects. High-profile and expensive recruitment is one, but so is forging a team and developing a winning habit. It is why Tuesday's Champions League victory over Villarreal, when Aguero scored the decisive goal in the dying seconds of injury time, offered him so much encouragement. "We need this kind of spirit and mentality," he said. "It was amazing.''

Another aspect is the added sense of adventure City have displayed this season. Solidity was prioritised in Mancini's first full year in charge but progress, along with the signings of Nasri and Aguero, has enabled them to play with greater flair. "I think now the club has more confidence and we play such fantastic attacking football that everyone enjoys it," Toure added.

GettyImagesToure has praise for his current boss.

The artist, the man his manager believes is one of the world's finest footballers, is Silva and Toure concurs with Mancini's appraisal of the Spaniard. "If I am not wrong, Barcelona wanted to sign him [before he came to City]," he said. "I don't know why they didn't because Silva is a fantastic player." Praise is swiftly followed by a message to his old club. "And I don't want him to leave to go to Barcelona. He has to stay with us because he is an amazing player."

Indeed, Toure's compliments for his colleagues are a constant with some of the less heralded members of the City squad, such as James Milner, regularly invoked. They are the men Toure hopes will be his history-makers, delivering immortality in East Manchester. The 6' 3'' midfielder speaks from a towering height, with his club top of the table.

"If we stay there, it will be fantastic," he said. "We need to win the Premier League and everything will come."

Yaya Toure plays in PUMA V1.11 Speed boots, the lightest football boot PUMA has ever made.