Ivory Coast legend Yaya Toure gets first head coach role, with Slovan Bratislava

Ivory Coast and Manchester City legend Yaya Toure has been appointed head coach of Slovak champions Slovan Bratislava, signing three-year deal with the club in his first managerial position.

The 43-year-old, who leaves his position as assistant coach of the Saudi Arabia men's national team to take the role, replacing newly appointed Slovakia head coach Vladimir Weiss.

The only player to win the African Footballer of the Year award on four consecutive occasions, Toure was a Champions League winner with Barcelona in 2009, won three Premier League titles with City, and was an Africa Cup of Nations winner with the Elephants in 2015.

"I'm very happy and excited, honestly, I can't wait for us to get to work together on Monday," 43-year-old Toure told the club's official handles upon his appointment on Saturday.

"My predecessor deserves great respect for what he's achieved with Slovan. I want to build on that while also bringing something new and unique of my own.

"Soccer is everything to me. I love challenges and am incredibly excited to coach a great club with a rich history, a beautiful stadium, and high ambitions.

"As an assistant, I had the opportunity to work with Robert Mancini, for example, but I've longed for a long time to be able to work on my own project as a head coach."

Since retirement, Toure has served as an assistant manager at Ukraine's Olimpik Donetsk, Akhmat Grozny in Russia, and Belgian heavyweights Standard Liege, while also serving as academy coach at Tottenham Hotspur between 2022-23.

With Slovan he will look to retain the Slovak title - which they won for a 24th time last season - while also seeking to return the club for the UEFA Champions League group stage for only the second time in their history.

Slovan, who failed to win a single game in the League phase in 24-25, will enter this year's competition in the second qualifying round.

"I'm very happy that Yaya Toure is our new head coach, I'm glad that we have agreed on a three-year contract with him and we will begin to build a new era of Slovan Bratislava," club CEO Ivan Smotrik Jr. said upon Toure's unveiling.

"My goal was to bring the person and personality who experienced the greatest football in the world.

"He has a huge motivation to break through as a coach. I've done many personal meetings with Yaya Toure. However, it all started with the first video interview where he made an amazing impression on me.

"The first impression was so strong that other candidates were very difficult to overcome. I immediately felt from him that we are on the same wavelength and we share a similar mindset on how to be successful.

"Yaya has a great desire and motivation to succeed as a coach with Slovan Bratislava. We have common high goals, we are both young, ambitious and we will do our best to be successful as a club."

After graduating from the ASEC Mimosas academy in Abidjan, Toure also represented Beveren, Metalurh Donetsk, Olympiacos and AS Monaco during his playing career, eventually retiring in 2019 following a brief spell with Chinese side Qingdao Huanghai.