Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure is one of the top 10 highest paid players in professional soccer. He has led his team to two Premier League titles in the past three years, and all he expects in return for that is $18 million per season and a few sincere happy birthdays.
Toure turned 31 on May 13. Manchester City was so busy celebrating its Premier League title that Toure did not get the birthday celebration he felt he deserved, and he is not pleased about it. His agent Dimitri Seluk told BBC Sport this week that Toure is “very upset” over the lack of birthday acknowledgement.
“None of them shook his hand on his birthday,” Seluk said. “It’s really sick. He got a cake but when it was Roberto Carlos’s birthday, the president of Anzhi gave him a Bugatti. I don’t expect City to present Yaya with a Bugatti, we only asked that they shook his hand and said ‘we congratulate you’. It is the minimum they must do when it is his birthday and the squad is all together.”
Wait, so there are things a team “must do” to celebrate a grown man’s 31st birthday? Seluk even implied that people from other professions would leave their job if they did not receive a proper “happy birthday.”
“Of course Yaya is upset about this,” he added. “If this happened to you as a journalist in the BBC and nobody shakes your hand, you will say bye-bye and go to work for somebody else. It is normal.”
I guess we can chalk this one up to a major cultural difference, because a lot of people in America hate acknowledging that they are getting older — although, Chris Bosh clearly gets it. Toure admitted he is upset in a series of tweets on Tuesday morning, though he tried to take a more light-hearted tone than his agent.
Thanks for all the birthday messages today. Card from City just arrived… Must have got lost in the post. Haha
— yaya toure (@Toure_yaya42) May 20, 2014
Jokes aside. Please do not take words that do not come out of MY mouth seriously. Judge my commitment to @MCFC by my performances.
— yaya toure (@Toure_yaya42) May 20, 2014
My agent was trying to make a point here on my behalf, joke aside.It seems important for me to make a statement..i am going to do so.
— yaya toure (@Toure_yaya42) May 20, 2014
Everything dimitry said is true . He speaks for me . I will give an interview after world cup to explain
— yaya toure (@Toure_yaya42) May 20, 2014
I’m not sure if we can wait until after the World Cup for Toure to address Birthdaygate. We need answers and we need them NOW.
H/T For the Win
