'It was a big tackle': Arsenal hero Kolo Toure confirms it's true he two-footed Arsene Wenger
Kolo Toure arrived at Arsenal eager to impress: so much so that he almost injured half the team to prove how much he wanted it
Former Arsenal defender Kolo Toure has confirmed that the story of him injuring manager Arsene Wenger in his trial is "absolutely true".
FFT met the Ivorian ahead of Arsenal vs Manchester City this week, with Toure tipping City for the win. But it was at the Gunners' leafy London Colney base that he originally had a trial in the early noughties. In trying to show how keen he was, the Highbury hero ended up going in strongly in tackles on the club's two biggest players in Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry. When the ball ended up at the feet of Wenger by the touchline, an overexcited Toure made it an impressive hat-trick, taking the Frenchman out and forcing him to receive medical treatment.
Now, the defender – who ended up making 326 appearances for Arsenal – says that not only is the story true, he can't believe Wenger ended up signing him after the ordeal.
"It's true – it was a big tackle, a proper one!" Toure laughs now. "He had to get some ice on his foot. I took out all of them: Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, then Wenger – because I wanted to sign for Arsenal, definitely!"
The story goes that Wenger was impressed with the young defender's tenacity and aggression, so signed him despite the overeagerness at training. Can Toure actually believe that he got signed by Arsenal, FFT asks him now, after almost injuring the manager?
"I couldn’t even believe I was training with them!" Toure replies. "For me, it was like, ‘F**king hell, what am I doing here?’, you know? But it was great."
It's Game On for the title. Watch Man City v Arsenal, the biggest game of the season, exclusively live on BT Sport 1 on Wednesday 26th April from 7pm. BT Sport will broadcast all Premier League midweek fixtures from Tuesday 25th to Thursday 27th April. Watch 30 days of BT Sport, contract-free, for £29.99 a month with the BT Sport Monthly Pass. For more info, visit: bt.com/sport/monthly-pass
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
Mark White is the Digital Content Editor at FourFourTwo. During his time on the brand, Mark has written three cover features on Mikel Arteta, Martin Odegaard and the Invincibles, and has written pieces on subjects ranging from Sir Bobby Robson’s time at Barcelona to the career of Robinho. An encyclopedia of football trivia and collector of shirts, he first joined the team back in 2020 as a staff writer.