Yaya Toure likened Guardiola to a snake, and Messi calls him the best coach in the world

Manchester City icon Yaya Toure has sensationally reopened his bitter feud with Pep Guardiola, labelling the legendary manager a 'snake'.

Toure and Guardiola have endured a frosty relationship ever since the former Barcelona boss ruthlessly sold the influential midfielder to City in 2010 after promoting Sergio Busquets from the B side.

Guardiola saw Busquets as a better fit in the holding midfield role in his fabled 4-3-3 system. Toure completed 90 minutes on just nine occasions in his final season at the Nou Camp, before enjoying a glittering eight-year spell at the Etihad.

The pair met again in 2016 when Guardiola was recruited by City's hierarchy, and he once more relegated Toure to a bit-part role, leading to the player's agent, Dimitri Seluk, speaking out publicly against the coach.

Seluk later apologised for those comments, which did little to encourage Guardiola to give Toure a second chance, and he left the club in May 2018.

And Toure, 42, has seemingly not moved on from his feud with Guardiola. 'I don't see a man, I see a SNAKE':

 'The Barcelona coach calls me back then and says, "You have to come back, it's important." My wife says to me, "Are you going to listen to that nonsense? He treated you like dirt, and now he wants you to stay, and you're going to stay? Let's go to Manchester, my brother".

'The guy didn't play me all year, and at the end of the year, I shone at the World Cup (2010), and he brought me to Barcelona. My wife would tell me about him. "Sheytan, he's not a man, he's wicked." She sees him as a negative person.'

Despite his hostile relationship with Guardiola, Toure enjoyed a glittering career with Barcelona and Manchester City, winning three Premier Leagues, two LaLigas, a Champions League and five domestic cup trophies.

The midfielder was also named African Footballer of the Year for four successive seasons from 2011 to 2014, winning the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015.

Elsewhere, in an interview with ESPN's SportsCenter, Lionel Messi made it very clear that the best coach in the world isGuardiola. Coached by him at Barcelona, the world football genius keeps fresh the learning he absorbed from the Spanish director, whom he values as one of a kind. The star also spoke about what is expected of Argentina at the 2026 World Cup.

Messi found the best version of himself and reached glory at the club level with the Blaugrana club.

When it comes to seeing things, preparing matches, and transmitting to the players, he is very complete. He is the best, and we were lucky to have him at Barcelona and that he joined the players who were there, and the right pieces came together with what he wanted to achieve, everything that was achieved’’

In his opinion, there is no other coach on the planet like him.

‘’For me, Guardiola is unique. There are extraordinarily good coaches, but he has something different. For me, he is the best of all because he endows the teams he leads with a unique and winning personality.

‘’He went elsewhere and continued to win, not only for winning but also for the way his teams played. He did it at Bayern, although he could not win the Champions League, he changed the way of playing in Germany, the same in England with City, he changed the way the league is played’’

Messi's reflection on Argentina at the 2026 World Cup

Measured, fully aware that the Albiceleste are favourites and that there is pressure because of this same condition, Messi does not get carried away. As the world champion that he is, and an experienced player, he avoids triumphalist speeches.

Based on what the last World Cups have been like and the level shown by some elite teams, the star knows that the competition is close, very close. So close that the penalty factor was what defined the last monarch. He considers that it is best to wait for the moment and go step by step, as happened with Argentina in Qatar 2022.

‘’We were lucky, although we were far superior to both the Netherlands and France, we ended up going to penalties, and then we had the beast of Dibu, who made us win. But it may be that we get to penalties and not win; it's very difficult to get a World Cup.