There is the reported $334,000-a-week salary, the luxury homes and cars, not to mention the silverware from last season when Manchester City won the Premier League and the English League Cup.
Yet despite that success, including a fourth straight African Player of the Year title, the City and Ivory Coast talisman describes 2014 as “a horrible year.”
No wonder — it’s barely six months since his younger brother Ibrahim died while Toure and his brother Kolo were on World Cup duty in Brazil.
As for what lies in store during 2015, he’s no idea.
Asked if he wants to stay put at City, Toure says, in a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Amanda Davies: “That’s a big question and that’s an easy question as well, and you have an easy answer … we’ll see.”
Pressed on whether he plans to still be at the Etihad Stadium for the 2015-16 Premier League season, he says: “I don’t know. I’m at City. City is a great club where I’ve achieved lots of things.”
Those less than equivocal answers bring us to Toure’s Marie Antoinette “Let them eat cake” moment.
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“It’s difficult when you feel like your family can maybe contract this infection, you’re a little bit afraid,” he says. “Yes, we fear but we can’t say we don’t want to go because it’s a situation we need to educate people because people don’t understand how to protect themselves against this infection.”
There was talk of perhaps scrapping the tournament for a year due to the threat posed by Ebola, but Toure believes organizers are right to go ahead.
“January is the time when the African people can enjoy,” he says. “The African player coming from Europe is like a moment in a dream for the African because, when they see us coming, they are always happy.
“It’s going to be like a big fiesta where people can enjoy, they can dance, they can love and they can do what they want.”
After Toure’s tumultuous 2014, he’s hopeful it will prove the perfect start to 2015.
Read: Yaya Toure’s cake moment
