Former Barcelona, Manchester United and Real Madrid stars were among the five best players in the world in 2015 according to Yaya Toure.
The former Manchester City star himself was one of the best players at the time. Indeed, he finished 12th in the 2015 Ballon d’Or rankings after an excellent season with City.
During an interview with BT Sport, Toure was asked to name the five best players in the world in his opinion and these were the five names that he gave.
5\. Wayne Rooney
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Despite playing for his arch-rivals rivals at the time, Toure kicked off his list by naming Rooney as the fifth-best player in the world.
At his peak, Rooney was undoubtedly among the best players in the world, but in 2015 he was hardly at the peak of his powers.
In 2015-16, the United forward scored 15 goals in 41 appearances across all competitions and started to drop into a deeper position under Louis van Gaal.
Regardless of that, Toure still selected him ahead of the likes of Neymar, Luis Suarez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Manuel Neuer which does seem a bit mental.
4\. Gareth Bale
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We can’t have any complaints over this one.
The Welsh winger was ripping things up for Real Madrid in 2015 and was one of the most prolific wingers in world football.
In 2015-16, Bale was averaging a goal or assist every 72.2 minutes for Real Madrid. Considering he wasn’t their focal point, those are some massively impressive numbers.
3. Sergio Aguero
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A bit of Manchester City bias might have been at play here, but Aguero was certainly among the best players in the world back in 2015.
The Argentine forward enjoyed a great goalscoring year in 2015 but only placed 13th in the Ballon d’Or rankings that year – one place behind Toure.
In total, Toure played 195 games alongside Aguero and the pair combined for 20 goals during that time.
“A lot of people close to the team knows how much I love Aguero from the start when he signed for Man City under (Roberto) Mancini,” Toure told talkSPORT in 2021.
“I always said if we could get a player like Aguero, it would be massive boost for the club. When he came, he was a short guy but a smiley guy – a nice boy. He just tried to learn and understand.
“Working with him was a great pleasure. When things are so nice you want to see it carry on, but at the end of the day everything comes to an end.”
2\. Cristiano Ronaldo
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CR7 came second in the Ballon d’Or in 2015 and that’s exactly where Ronaldo was placed in Toure’s list.
During his career, [Ronaldo](https://www.planetfootball.com/tag/cristiano-ronaldo) faced Toure on eight separate occasions, but he only ever scored once in 630 minutes of football against the Ivory Coast midfielder.
For some, Ronaldo is the greatest player of all time, but Toure doesn’t seem to share that opinion.
1\. Lionel Messi
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Who else?
Given that Toure once played alongside [Messi](https://www.planetfootball.com/tag/lionel-messi) at Barcelona, it’s hardly much of a surprise that he often backs the Argentine wizard in the GOAT debate.
After Toure left Barcelona, he faced Messi on three separate occasions and lost all three matches. It’s no wonder he rates him so highly.
“The best player I have played with is Messi,” Toure said on BT Sport.
“I’ll tell you something, I once heard Patrice Evra and Carlos Tevez say that Cristiano Ronaldo works really hard, but Messi is different.
“Messi is a genius. It’s natural. In training he’s simple. He’s very good with the ball. He’s always with the ball, but he never does anything crazy. He’s thinking about the game.”