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Yaya Touré upset over Man City treatment

Yaya Touré is a midfielder for Manchester City in the English Premier League. Despite Man City winning the league title, Yaya Touré is not happy.

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Jon Super/AP
Manchester City's Yaya Touré, left, and manager Manuel Pellegrini stand by the trophy as the team celebrate in the city center the day after they won the English Premier League title, Manchester, England, Monday May 12, 2014.
  • By Associated Press

| Manchester, England

Yaya Toure deflated Manchester City's Premier League title celebrations by complaining about the club's treatment of him and creating confusion about his future in a series of cryptic Twitter messages on Tuesday.

What began as a bizarre complaint by Toure's agent about the way City celebrated the midfielder's 31st birthday last week ended with the Ivory Coast international throwing into doubt his commitment, saying he would comment on his situation after the World Cup.

In an interview with the BBC, Dimitry Seluk said the fact that City's owners did not shake Toure's hand on his birthday during the squad's post-season trip to Abu Dhabi "shows they don't care about him."

"The most important thing is a human relationship and maybe this is his opportunity for Yaya to find that," Seluk said. "If City don't respect him, then, easy, Yaya will leave. No problem."

Initially, Toure responded on Twitter with a joke, saying a birthday card from City just arrived in the post, before adding: "Please do not take words that do not come out of MY mouth seriously. Judge my commitment to MCFC by my performances."

But within an hour, Toure was more outspoken, insisting his agent "was trying to make a point here on my behalf," and that it was important he made a statement.

And in a final tweet, Toure said: "Everything dimitry said is true. He speaks for me. I will give an interview after world cup to explain."

Toure was the driving force behind City's title success this season — the club's second in three years — by scoring 20 goals from midfield, and also curled in a brilliant goal during the League Cup final win over Sunderland.

He signed a four-year contract last year and has been an integral part of the team's rise to becoming a major force in England and a growing threat in Europe.

City has not officially commented on Toure's tweets.

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