Kolo Touré
Encyclopedia : K : KO : KOL : Kolo Touré
Kolo Abib Touré (born March 19, 1981 in Sokoura Bouake, Côte d'Ivoire), is an Ivorian footballer. He currently plays for Arsenal F.C. in England. Kolo Touré is only 1.83m high and weighs 76kg. He makes up for a lack of size with an impressive vertical leap, making him strong in the air. Kolo is also quick and is the third fastest player currently at Arsenal (only Thierry Henry, and Theo Walcott are faster) [[Citing sources citation needed]].
He is deployed by Arsène Wenger at centre-back, but is also capable of playing as a full-back or a right sided midfielder, as well as a defensive midfielder.
Biography
Career in the Ivory Coast
Kolo Toure was discovered in the Ivory Coast and was a scholar at the Abidjan football school run by Jean-Marc Guillou. Toure established himself as a player for leading African club ASEC Mimosas. He earned his first full international cap for the Ivory Coast at the age of 19 in 2000.
Career in Europe
Arsenal and Belgium club KSK Beveren had links through Guillou to Ivory Coast Football. It was through these links that Arsenal became aware of Toure's talent. After a short trial Touré joined Arsenal in February 2002 from ASEC Mimosas for £150,000. His status as a full international meant Toure was able to secure a British work permit. He was initially seen as cover for Arsenal's right back Lauren.
Toure did not make his debut for the first team until the next season, against Liverpool F.C. in the FA Community Shield August 2002. Initially regarded as a 'utility man', he started his Arsenal career as a midfielder as well as in defence. However, since the ageing Martin Keown was never properly replaced in the transfer market, Wenger increasingly utilised him as a central defender alongside Sol Campbell.
Touré quickly established himself as one of the best centre-backs in the Premiership. He is now a fixture in the Arsenal starting eleven. He was a key member of the Arsenal team that won the premiership title without a single defeat. In the 2005-06 season he established a formidable defensive partnership with Philippe Senderos. Both centre-backs had immaculate form towards the end of the season, helping the Arsenal team reach the 2006 Champions League Final after keeping 10 consecutive clean sheets (a European competition record).
Kolo scored his first European goal on April 19, 2006, a vitally important winner in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Villarreal. It was the final European goal scored at Highbury; and the goal that effectively decided the tie (the score remained 1-0 over two legs), to send Arsenal through to their first ever Champions League Final in Paris.
International Career
He has played for the Côte d'Ivoire national football team since 2000. His debut was in April 2000 against Rwanda. He is a first choice central defender. He played in all 5 games for the Ivory Coast as they finished runners up to the hosts in the African Cup of Nations in Eygpt in January 2006.
He was named in the 23-man squad taken by coach Henri Michel to the 2006 World Cup and made his first appearance in a World Cup on June 11, 2006 in Côte d'Ivoire's 1-2 loss to Argentina.
Family
Kolo has two brothers who play professional football as well: Yaya Toure and Ibrahim Toure. His brother Yaya is also an Ivory Coast International. A practicing Muslim, Toure lives with his family in north London.
Career stats
| Club | Season | League | Cup* | Europe | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Assists | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Arsenal | 2002-03 | 26 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |||||
| 7 | ||||||||||
| 39 | 2 | |||||||||
| 2003-04 | 37 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 10 | ||||
| 55 | 3 | |||||||||
| 2004-05 | 35 | |||||||||
| 7 | ||||||||||
| 8 | 1 | 50 | 1 | |||||||
| 2005-06 | 33 | |||||||||
| 1 | ||||||||||
| 12 | 1 | 45 | 1 | |||||||
| Total | 177 | 6 | ||||||||
Honours
International
African Cup of Nations: Runner up 2006
Arsenal
FA Premiership Champions: 2003-2004
FA Cup Winner: 2005
Champions League Finalist: 2006
External links
- [Official website] (in French)
- [Kolo Toure's official profile] at Arsenal.com
- [Statistics] at soccerbase.com
- [Profile] at 4thegame.com
- [Profile] at sporting-heroes.net
- [Profile] at premierleague.com
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.