Kelly: You had particularly incredible times at both Barcelona and Manchester City. What was that period at Manchester City, in particular, like?
Yaya: I think it’s something I’m really proud of, to be honest. In the beginning, it was quite challenging. The fact that fans, the media as well, were questioning me more about the income than what I’m going to bring to the club. And so those few people as well will be sceptical about my arrival at City, because they were thinking it was not the right move to do, and I feel so delighted that I proved them wrong. The fact that I delivered what I should deliver, that’s what I’m proud of.
My second year at Barcelona, we won everything and I’ll never forget the Champions League final – playing in a different position. It was quite risky because some of my team-mates were talking to me before the game, saying: ‘You’re going to play Manchester United and there’s going to be Cristiano Ronaldo coming to you and [Wayne] Rooney is coming to you.’
I wanted to embrace the challenge. But inside, I was quite a bit worried, you know, because as a holding midfielder, it’s fine. But a defender, any mistake can cost you a lot, right, and can stay in your brain for a long time. What I’m the most proud of is the opportunity to help City to start the journey to be one of the elite clubs in England now.
Kelly: When did the coaching journey begin then?
Yaya: I was sat at home and watching TV and I started feeling a little bit annoyed. I didn’t take it that seriously in that moment because I want to have this kind of freedom – just relax because my body was hurt from a lot of difficult moments from games and injuries. As you can imagine, I wanted to have that time period to be myself and relax and do nothing for maybe one or two or three months. That was my plan at the beginning.
Kelly: What changed? What happened?
Yaya: After maybe two or three days, I started to be annoying. I was watching all the games and commenting on them. I knew the Premier League was going to be on at this time, La Liga is going to start at eight, I knew what time the French league starts – at seven. I was all the time, on the right time, watching TV. And I was thinking, ‘what am I going to do?’ And after that, I started the journey of thinking about building something suitable for me. That’s how I started to get into the journey of coaching. I started to do all the badges possible.
I’ve been in Tottenham’s academy for a while, I’ve been in Russia, Ukraine and the last one I was in Saudi recently. And it was something enjoyable. Not so easy but I think I needed to do that. To be ready, because I hope one day people are going to watch me with my team as a coach.
Kelly: Which coaches that you’ve played under have particularly influenced you, and the manager that you want to be?
Yaya: Frank Rijkaard and Roberto Mancini. When I went to Barcelona in the time of Rijkaard, it was impressive because he was always telling me, ‘I don’t want you to go further [forward] because you play the deep midfielder role. Xavi and Iniesta are in front of you, you can’t pass them to play the ball because you’re supposed to be behind them. That space is occupied by two expert players, but I think physically you can give more to the team.’
What he did, at some point – he called me. He wanted to see me face to face, have a chat, maybe look at some movie. I said: ‘Why do I want to watch a movie with you gaffer?!’ When everyone had gone, we went in his private room and he showed me a video with all my actions during the game we played against Zaragoza. I’ll never forget that. He had a small book and he said: ‘I told you not to do this, but look at that.’
From that day, when I left his office, I never talk again, ever – because it was like something new to me. In the game, he was like: ‘Yaya, Yaya, Yaya.’ I was like: ‘What does this guy want from me? All the time, he’s calling me. Why he don’t call Puyol, don’t call Alves or Abidal or Zambrotta. Why always me?’ It was like he had something against me, but he was right. Since that day, my brain changed a lot.
The second one was Mancini. In terms of dedication, passion, you know – the session he gives and the intensity he gives, how much he gets involved.
It may be quite a bit strange, when you see a coach grab you and say, ‘you have to do that, do that’ and after show you some videos and push you to get better and better.