Former Arsenal defender Kolo Toure has confirmed that the story of him injuring manager Arsene Wenger in his trial is “absolutely true”.
FFT met the Ivorian ahead of Arsenal vs Manchester City this week, with Toure tipping City for the win. But it was at the Gunners’ leafy London Colney base that he originally had a trial in the early nineties. In trying to show how keen he was, the Highbury hero ended up going strong in tackles on the club’s two biggest players in Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry. When the ball ended up at the feet of Wenger by the touchline, an overexcited Toure made it an impressive hat-trick, taking the Frenchman out and forcing him to receive medical treatment.
Now, the defender – who ended up making 326 appearances for Arsenal – says that not only is the story true, he can’t believe Wenger ended up signing him after the ordeal.
“It’s true – it was a big tackle, a proper one!” Toure laughs now. “He had to get some ice on his feet. I took out all of them: Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, then Wenger – because I wanted to sign for Arsenal, definitely!”
The story goes that Wenger was impressed with the young defender’s tenacity and aggression, so he signed him despite the overeagerness at training. Can Toure actually believe that he got signed by Arsenal, FFT asks him now, after almost injuring the manager?
“I couldn’t even believe I was training with them!” Toure replies. “For me, it was like, ‘F**king hell, what am I doing here?’, you know? But it was great.”
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