Yaya Touré is one of the recognized names yet never put in the bracket of the best in the world or even the best in Premier League history despite winning all titles there is to win. So, why is such a decorated star isn't talked about enough? Or better yet; why is Yaya Touré underrated?

Manchester City

This is pretty much the same reason why David Silva isn't thought of in the bracket as Iniesta, Xavi, and Xabi Alonso, or even players like Fernando Torres, despite achieving just as much as they have internationally. There's a big part of a player's legacy attached to the club they were playing in. Scholes and Giggs are hailed for their loyalty while I bet no one could even name what club Matt Le Tissier played 443 games for over the span of 16 years. It is Southampton, in case you're wondering.

Clubs' fan bases are an essential part of taking a player's status to a legendary level. You could already tell that Pedri, Gavi, Camavinga, and Vinicius Junior are going to be called legends because their clubs' supporters will make sure that they are treated as such.

Die-hard fans aren't exactly something Manchester City was known for until very recently. In fact, many people may remember Aguero's goal fondly against QPR now, but, at the time it wasn't as celebrated among football fans. Manchester City fans may be showing passion and the club is highly respected with a recognized style but none of that is something they were known for a few years back.

The Childish Actions at the End

It feels cheap going to that off-pitch area in such a discussion, but it has to be mentioned how childish Yaya Touré was behaving during the last few years he had with Manchester City. Leaving his agent to insinuate that his current manager is racist, destabilizing the locker room as he is one of the team's leaders, and all of that might have ben forgotten if it weren't for that stupid birthday cake saga.

Before the birthday incident, everything was either happening behind closed doors or it was someone who isn't Yaya Touré speaking, so it was easily ignored. But, the birthday cake had Yaya Touré expressing displeasure personally and it was just serious enough in its description to cause a rift with the club but also dumb enough to be turned into a meme to death. Here's an excerpt from The Republicworld

The Yaya Toure birthday cake incident blew up to a proportion where the Ivorian wanted an exit from the Etihad. Toure later played down the incident but admitted that the ignorance of not sending him a celebratory birthday cake left him 'damaged' with a lasting effect on his daily life.

The more the situation was explained the sillier it looked. And these things are very damaging to a player's legacy. Steven Gerrard's legacy will forever have someone bringing up how he slipped and gave a win to Chelsea even though it is 10 seconds in a career that last 18 years. The same thing about Puyol's splitting in front of Di Maria. A

Without the proper, strong fan base to stand against such belittlement, legacies are harmed.

Stereotyping Hell

Which of the following midfield description would you use to describe Yaya Touré?

• Deep Laying Playmaker
• Defensive midfielder
• Carrier
• Surger
• Destroyer
• Anchor Man
• Regista
• Box-to-Box

There's a real possibility that some minds drifted toward terms like "Anchor man" or "Destroyer" because that's where African midfielders are usually categorized. No one ever thinks about how good Idrissa Gueye's passes are or Franck Kessié's positioning between the lines. This extends to any player whose shade is on the darker spectrum. For example, no one thinks about how essential Georginio Wijnaldum was tactically and how much he did to make Klopp's system work.

No one thinks about how good Seydou Keita was at replacing Xavi, Iniesta, or even Busquets during Barcelona's golden age under Guardiola. Or an even better example is how good and wise Eric Abidal was tactically for Barcelona. No one thinks those things because they don't fit the mold of a black or African player.

Tactical and technical players aren't something African players are described as at all. So, despite being at least on the same level as Lampard and Gerrard, Touré could never be put in the same bracket as that doesn't the stereotype.

African players are described as "fast" and "strong", never "smart" and "witty". Inzaghi is a fox in a box but Drogba is a tank up front. No one talks about how intelligent African players are. In fact, the adjectives used to describe them are often ones only used to describe animals. So, Yaya Toure is a "BEAST" but Pirlo is "brilliant" or a "genius" same with Lampard, Xavi, Gerrard, Iniesta, Kevin De Bruyne, and Modric.

You hear terms like "magician" and "artist" describing players doing stuff, not at all different than what Yaya Touré does, and in the end, they become the reference point in those roles despite not being better than him.

So, when you make a list of the top 20 players who are either Box-to-Box, Surger, or Carrier type of players, Yaya Toure will not be on that list and will not be even considered yet when making a "Top 15 Midfield Destroyers in European Football", Bleacher Report will put him second in the last despite him never being that and the closest thing he played to that was being a center-back in the 2009 Champions League final and that only happened due to injuries.

In fact, Touré was good at playing many midfield roles but for most of his career, he was playing NEXT TO a destroyer. So, in the end, you could look at his stats as a destroyer and not be impressed at all because he never was that, he never fell under the stereotype of an African midfielder. A Stereotype that despite tens of players breaking it, over and over again, remains to describe them no matter what and there is no way to escape it.

In conclusion

Yaya Touré's career teaches us a lot about the mindset and football fans and pundits alike. It tells us how a legacy requires certain clubs to be achieved, how silly incidents could harm one's legacy, and most importantly; how stereotyping can play a major role in disrupting legacies and hurting careers.

These stereotypes seem unbreakable at the moment, so people will most likely continue to think of players like Frank Anguissa, Franck Kessie, and Victor Osimhen within those stereotypes despite each being much more than that, and each serve tactical and technical roles that are of huge importance yet will always be reduced to simple and lazy descriptions.