Former Barcelona and Manchester City forward, Yaya Toure is set to prolong his playing career by another two years with a move to the Chinese second division football league just days after refuting claims from his agent, Dmitry Selyuk, that he was set to retire.
Toure has found his first club since leaving Olympiacos six months ago and has been targeted by the Chinese minnows after an injury to their captain Juan Verdu. Qingdao are top of the division and hope the Ivorian can help them seal promotion to the China Super League.
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Just last week Toure looked set to hang up his boots after his agent claimed he was ready to move into coaching.
But he denied the claims in a tweet: ‘There has been a lot of confusion about my future recently. I want to make it clear here that I love football and I’m still in contention to play for a few more years. ‘Yes, I’m starting to prepare myself for coaching badges but full-time coaching is not what I’m thinking now.
His prospected move to China comes barely two years after he ridiculed the idea of leaving European football.
‘Me? No. I’m still looking young, right? I want to play in Europe, especially in England. I want to continue doing that for a few years yet. I always say that if I went to China I would end up feeling angry there,’ he told The Telegraph.
‘Do you play football because you love football or do you play because you want to make money? Me, I just want to play football because I enjoy it. I love playing. I enjoy helping my team-mates, I enjoy playing against the big players and teams.
‘I want to carry on in that way. Some people have the mentality that they want to do that go to China to try something different. But for me, my feeling is that I want to play more football.’