Pep Guardiola has said midfielder Yaya Touré will not play for Manchester City again until his agent apologises.
Touré has featured in only one game for his club this season, and was left out of the Champions League squad by the manager.
Dimitri Seluk, Touré’s agent, criticised that decision earlier this month, saying his the player had been humiliated and stating: “if City don’t win the Champions League then I hope that Pep has got the balls to say that he was wrong to humiliate a great player like Yaya.”
Guardiola said on Tuesday: “[Touré] must apologise to his team-mates, to the club. If he doesn’t, he won’t play.
“It was difficult to leave him out of the Champions League squad but [the] day after, his [agent] went to the media. [Touré] has not had the courage to call me. From that moment he was out. I know him, I know he’s a good good guy, but it was difficult for me as well to put Aleix Garcia out [of the Champions League squad].
“I cannot imagine in my period when I was a football player, my manager going to the media and speaking against Johan Cruyff, about this and about that. If he has a problem call the club, and they can talk, until he speaks, Yaya is not going to play.”
In a separate development, the Ivory Coast player also decided to retire from international football. Touré announced the decision in a lengthy statement on his website.
“Writing this note was probably ‘the most difficult match of my life’. After 14 years at the highest level, I’m sure this is the right time for me,” Touré said. “The fact that I am 33 now, the intensity of training and the multitude of games are not the reasons why I am making this decision. Football is everything to me and it gave me so much in my career that I no longer feel able to set myself new goals as a player with the Elephants of Ivory Coast.
“I can still bring a lot to the players, to the youth of my country and to the African continent and to the world. I would like to give the children what football has given me. Football gave me a lot. It taught me many things, things of life. This is one of the most important lessons in my life.”
Guardian.com
