Toure Left Out Of City’s Champions League Squad
Yaya Touré has been left out of Manchester City’s 2016-17 Champions League squad by Pep Guardiola.
This means the Ivorian will not play in City’s group games as they could not include more than 17 overseas players in their squad.
The UEFA rules permit only 17 players who are not “locally-trained” or “association-trained”, with Guardiola having 18 in his team.
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However, clubs are allowed to change three players after the group stage.
The 17 overseas players Guardiola has chosen include new signings Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan, who are yet to play for the club, skipper Vincent Kompany, who is recovering from groin and thigh operations which kept him out of Euro 2016, and 19-year-old forward Kelechi Iheanacho.
The 33-year-old has played a major part in all City’s trophy wins since he was bought from Barcelona for £24m in 2010.
Since the former Bayern Munich and Barcelona manager was appointed as City’s manager in the summer, Toure has only featured in one competitive game for the club, a Champions League second leg play-off against Steaua Bucharest, with the Guardiola’s side already 5-0 up.
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Toure was reportedly set to quit City following the arrival of Guardiola as the duo didn’t have a good relationship in Barcelona, but the player came out to rubbish the reports, saying he had no desire to leave the club and intends to see out his contract, which expires in 2017.
City are in Group C, alongside Barcelona, Celtic and Borussia Mönchengladbach.
