Yaya Toure was one of the best midfielders the Premier League has ever seen and a bonafide Manchester City legend

Yaya Toure turns 37 today and hopefully his current club, Qingdao Huanghai, have not forgotten.

As well as being an absolute legend of the game, most people also remember Toure for the infamous birthday cake incident at Manchester City.

Toure reportedly took umbrage when City failed to get him a cake and wanted to leave the club in 2014 as a result.

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The midfielder lated downplayed the incident and blamed his former agent Dmitry Selyuk for the fallout.

“It’s crazy,” Toure told The Times. “The birthday cake damaged me a lot.

“When people see me in France or Africa, they say ‘You want cake?’ I was so p***** [off]. I was telling him [Selyuk], you should not do that, no need.

“I talked with Khaldoon [Al Mubarak, City’s chairman], and I was saying, ‘It is not me, don’t worry’.”

Aside from that bizarre incident, it’s easy to forget just how special Toure was as a player.

City’s dominant spell in the Premier League coincided with the likes of Toure, Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany playing at their very best.

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He is one of the greatest African players to ever grace the Premier League and it is a tough call between him and Chelsea legend Didier Drogba over who is at the top of the list.

Toure joined Barcelona in the Frank Rijkaard era and quickly established himself as one of the best midfielders in the world.

In 2008, Pep Guardiola was appointed and the Ivory Coast international had to compete with Sergio Busquests for playing time.

He was a vital cog in the 'tiki taka' team that won the treble in the 2008/09 season and followed it up with another LaLiga title the following campaign.

Toure was not renowned for his goalscoring at Barcelona and often played in more defensive roles, even playing at centre-back in the 2009 Champions League final.

In 2010, he was deemed surplus to requirements by Guardiola and joined City for just £24million.

Under Roberto Mancini, he played in a midfield three alongside Gareth Barry and Nigel De Jong and became the marauding force he is remembered for.

He scored 10 goals in his first season as he helped City win their first major trophy in 35 years, when he scored in the FA Cup final in a 1-0 win over Stoke.

Toure then helped the club claim their first ever Premier League title in the 2011/12 season and went on to win it two more times before leaving in 2018.

It was his 2013/14 season that will go down as one of the best by any midfielder in history.

He wracked up a phenomenal 20 Premier League goals as well as nine assists. He completed 90 per cent of his passes and made football look easy.

Toure’s lung-busting runs from midfield stoked fear into every defender in the league as he was accustomed to lashing the ball in the top corner from 25-yards.

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He also developed into a dead ball specialist smashing in 10 free-kicks from just 13 attempts that season.

He would have been named player of the year that season had Luis Suarez not been incredible for Liverpool that year.

Toure was Man City’s player of the year as they pipped Liverpool to the title and won African footballer of the year four times.

An ageing Toure eventually left City in 2018 but not before leaving his mark on the Premier League as one of the best players in recent years.

Arsene Wenger had the chance to sign Toure in 2003 but problems with his work permit saw him opt for a move to Ukraine.

Wenger said: “It would be up at the top (of my list of regrets). But let’s not forget that Yaya Toure had an agreement with us - and it’s not because we did not want to sign him that he went to Ukraine.

“We needed to wait for his passport in Belgium. We have made mistakes but he is not a mistake, it’s just the face he preferred to go to Matalurh Donetsk. He could go there without any passport.”

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Former teammate Bacary Sagna labelled Toure as the ‘best midfielder in the world’ when he made the switch from Arsenal to City.

Even when he was 32, Gary Neville argued that on his day he was still the best midfielder in the Premier League.

He said: “He is a fantastic player, but I would leave him for your more important games.

“There is a problem around Yaya Toure. On his day, he’s perhaps the best central midfield player in the Premier League, but the idea that you can get three equal performances out of him in a week now is impossible.”

No matter what your opinion of Toure is, he is certainly one of the best we have seen and had long spells where he was completely unplayable.