Yaya Toure blasts African football players

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure says some
African footballers need to show more desire to make it
to the very top of the game. Toure, 30, is in the running
to win the African Footballer of the Year award for a
fifth time after the list of nominees was cut to a 10-man
shortlist earlier this week.
The Ivory Coast international is also the only African on
the shortlist for the FIFA Ballon d'Or award for the fourth
year in a row.
"I admit that I see too many of them acting
casually," he told France Football. "You'd say that
they're not always very hungry. Not hungry
enough, for my taste. They're not conscious
enough of the effort required to get to the very
top.
Of course it can go quite quickly at the start. Too
quickly, without a doubt. But when it comes to
climbing the final steps to get to the very top
with [Lionel] Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, there's
no longer anyone left."
Toure said part of the problem was that players like
himself, compatriot Didier Drogba, former Cameroon
striker Samuel Eto'o, Ghanaian midfielder Michael
Essien and ex-Nigeria attacker Jay-Jay Okocha had set
the bar very high for those following them. But the
Ivorian captain, who won the African Nations Cup with
his country in January, believes some of the current
generation could be lacking ambition.
"It's possible," he said. "They let themselves go
too quickly sometimes. They're in their world.
They think they've arrived -- the most beautiful,
the strongest -- but they don't understand that
there are other steps to climb to get to the top.
Unfortunately a lot of them only see the good
side in this job: easy money, girls, nights out,
nice cars, nice clothes. They abandon the idea of
catching the best too quickly. They don't always
know how to suffer."
The former Barcelona player also believes nothing
should stop players from targeting becoming the very
best.
"There are no extraterrestrials among the best
players on the planet," he said. "Just guys who
want it a lot more than the others. Everything
starts from there -- I'm convinced of that."