The Internazionale president, Erick Thohir, has stated he will do whatever it takes to sign the Manchester City midfielder Yaya Touré this summer.
Touré, who joined from Barcelona for £24m in 2010, has two years remaining on his current £250,000-a-week contract, but his agent, Dimitri Seluk, said the Ivorian was “90% certain” to move on at the end of this season.
Speaking to Indonesia’s Tempo, Thohir said he planned to reunite the player with Roberto Mancini, the manager who signed him for City. “I don’t know what the chances are of bringing him to Inter,” said Thohir, “but what is certain is that we will do everything we can to get him”.
Touré added to the speculation in April when he told the French site Foot Mercato: “Since I started playing football, I had a dream as a little boy. Today, I am living the dream of thousands of little boys. I represent my continent, Africa, and that has no price. No amount of wages will make me stay at a club if I feel that I no longer belong there or if no challenge exists for me.
“It would be unjust on my part. There comes a moment where numbers don’t stop us, it goes beyond that, even if the English press seem more interested in the numbers than the sport itself.
“For the future, I don’t know more than you do because I will always go where I am offered new challenges. That is in my nature.”
On Wednesday Touré’s Ivory Coast and City team-mate Wilfried Bony urged him not to leave, saying: “For sure everyone wants to keep him here. He’s a legend for this club for sure, he always will be. We hope he stays, he’s a big player here and we know everything he is doing for the club.”
