Yaya Touré, a winning start? Coaching career begins in the Champions League - and in Tbilisi

Status and apprenticeship, player and coach. Two very different paths, yet now ready to connect. The author and protagonist of this new story is Yaya Touré: a man with a glittering playing career behind him and a coaching script still waiting to be written. Starting today.

Touré’s career on the pitch needs no introduction. Two La Liga titles, three Premier League crowns, one FA Cup and one Champions League are only part of the former Barcelona and Manchester City midfielder’s trophy haul, alongside the unforgettable 2015 Africa Cup of Nations triumph with Ivory Coast.

Off the pitch, however, Touré has had to roll up his sleeves and start from the ground up. He worked as an assistant at Olimpik Donetsk, Akhmat Grozny and with Saudi Arabia - the latter under Roberto Mancini - before moving into Tottenham Hotspur’s academy.

From those foundations came a three-year contract with Slovan Bratislava. And now comes his managerial debut: today at 6pm, in the second qualifying round of the Champions League, at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, Georgia, against FC Iberia 1999.

Pressure and ambition
Touré’s apprenticeship has been long, but there is no guarantee of a soft landing at a club such as Slovan Bratislava. The Slovak side’s 24 league titles and 17 domestic cups - as well as their historic 1968-69 European Cup Winners’ Cup triumph - mean standards are high under Ivan Kmotrík. At the same time, the club are trying to rebuild their competitiveness in Europe.

Their last two continental campaigns were far from encouraging. In the 2025-26 Conference League league phase, Slovan finished a disappointing 29th, taking only six points from six games. In 2024-25, they ended the expanded Champions League league phase with eight defeats from eight and a goal difference of -20.

Those are numbers Touré has been brought in to change.

He is eager to build a new career, this time from the touchline. His playing career remains the guiding star, but now there are fresh pages to write - starting in Tbilisi, in a mid-July Champions League qualifier.