Yaya Toure: Manchester City midfielder reacts angrily to not winning African footballer of the year award

The 32-year-old finished second to Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Andre Ayew, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Yaya Toure accept their awards (Getty Images)

Yaya Toure has reportedly accused the Confederation of African Football of “bringing shame on Africa” after he did not win the organisation’s player of the year award for the fifth year in a row.

The Manchester City midfielder reacted angrily to finishing as a runner-up to Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the Gabon international who currently tops the Bundesliga’s scoring charts. Swansea City’s Andre Ayew came third.

“I am very very disappointed. I think this, it brings shame on Africa,” said Toure to Radio France Internationale after the event. “To behave in this way, it is indecent! But what can we do?

Toure received 136 points in the vote held between the confederation’s coaches and technical directors, seven points behind Aubameyang.

The 32-year-old’s chief point of contention seemed to be that, despite winning each edition of the award since 2011, he was not recognised in the year that he captained his country, Cote D’Ivoire, to victory to its first Africa Cup of Nations win since 1992.

By contrast, Aubameyang could not lead Gabon out of the competition’s group stage.

“We Africans, we do not show that Africa is important to us. We focus more outside our own continent. This is what is appalling!”

“As I’ve been told many times, you can’t take care of Africa too much because Africa will be the first to let you down.”

Toure had managed to remain gracious on the podium as he, Aubameyang and Ayew collected their awards and congratulated the Dortmund striker on his calendar year.

“I’m quite disappointed but I don’t want to complain too much. I just want to give credit to Aubameyang – you’ve been doing brilliantly well this year,” Toure had said.