In an interview with the BBC, after cheekily admitting he has always thought he was “the best one” out of the pair, Yaya - who is now an assistant coach for the Saudi Arabia national team - said: “I always say that [I was the best] because it was a bitter rivalry between me and him.
“But at some point I felt it got to the point that he knew I was better in some parts of the game than him.
“I think he, physically, was better because that’s all this kind of coming down from my father as well, right? Because he was very focused, dedicated, and you know, he always had that discipline, right?
“Well, me and Kolo, we’ve always been that type of thing (dedicated), but at some point Kolo realised that I was like… a bit better, but he was not frustrated because he wanted to push that boundary very far, right?
“Like, who’s going to be the best and who’s going to achieve more and at some point I got better.”