Yaya Toure rejected a £430,000-a-week offer from the Chinese Super League to stay at Manchester City because he still wants to play at the highest level, according his agent Dimitri Seluk.
Toure, who turned down a £520,000-a-week package from Jiangsu Suning 12 months ago, would have earned £22.5million-a-year from the unnamed club.
The 33-year-old Ivory Coast star will see out the final six months of his contract at the Etihad and has not given up hope of securing a new deal.
Toure has regained his place after being frozen out by Pep Guardiola at the start of the season, and the City boss confirmed at the weekend that he is likely to include the former Barcelona midfielder in his Champions League squad for the knockout phase of the competition.
His agent Dimitri Seluk said: ‘Yaya plays on another level. He wants to play at the highest level. He’s happy at Manchester City. Yaya likes football more than money.”
Toure, signed from Barcelona for £24m in 2010, has produced a number of fine performances and regained a place in the heart of City’s midfield over the past two months. Prior to that it seemed his glittering spell at the club, which includes two Premier League titles, would end ingloriously following a row between the club and his agent.
Toure was frozen out of the first-team picture by manager Guardiola after Seluk claimed the midfielder had been humiliated by his omission from City’s Champions League squad.
That situation was resolved with an apology from Toure in November and his response since, Guardiola has confirmed, has ensured he will be restored to that squad for the remainder of the season.
As his contract winds down, Toure is now entitled to speak to other clubs but he said earlier this month he would not.
He said: ‘No, I won’t do that. My focus (is) on City, the future is there because for now the league is not finished.’
Regarding the possibility of a new deal at City, Guardiola last week said of Toure and other out-of-contract players: ‘We are going to see at the end of the season.’
The 33-year-old former Ivory Coast international has four goals in 11 appearances since his return and is out of contract at the Etihad Stadium at the end of the season.
Toure won the 2011 FA Cup and 2011-12 Premier League title alongside Carlos Tevez at City. His former team-mate’s switch from Boca Juniors to Shanghai Shenhua in December made him the highest-paid player in world football on a reported £615,000 per week.
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