Kolo Toure has paid tribute to his ‘mentor’ Brendan Rodgers after he was unveiled at Wigan Athletic in his first managerial job.
The former Arsenal and Manchester City defender becomes the fourth black manager in the second tier.
“I want to thank Mr. Brendan Rodgers,” Toure said.
The former centre-half played under Rodgers at Liverpool and Celtic before hanging up his boots and joining the Glasgow club’s backstage team in 2017. He recently became Rodgers’ assistant with the Foxes.
“He [Rodgers] is really my mentor and I’ve worked with him and learned from him and I want to thank him and his Leicester City team and first of all Celtic because that’s where my coaching career started,” Toure told BBC Sport in his first press conference.
“I finished my football career without a break and went straight into coaching with Brendan. I’ve been with him for almost five years and that was the process for me.
“Being a good football player doesn’t mean you’ll be a good manager, and that’s why I needed to work with a top manager like Rodgers. Then I had to learn all the skills a manager needs to ensure that he can implement the best possible quality to help his players.
“When Wigan comes you can’t turn that down when you’ve been waiting for five years.”
Toure joins Reading’s Paul Ince, Hull City’s Liam Rosenior and Burnley’s Vincent Kompany as a black manager in the Championship.
He is joined by first-team coaches Ashvir Johal, whom he worked with at Leicester, and former black Crawley Town manager Kevin Betsy in a diverse dugout.
Johal wears a Patka – a traditional headgear worn by Sikhs – and is the first Sikh to hold a senior coaching position in English professional football.
When asked if his new job would help inspire members of the Sikh community to follow his path, Johal said: “There are a lot of talented people of Sikh descent in football, whether it’s at grassroots level or in professional football.
“My main objective is to help the team in training and in matches through the quality of my work. If it inspires other people of Sikh origin, it will be nice, but it must come from my work .”
Toure says his coaches are “young and hungry” and want to improve the players.
“They are great coaches and that’s the most important thing,” he said.
“They are young and hungry and they want to improve the players. They are good tactically and technically.
“We know where we want to go and we will give everything every day to improve the club. We have a good group of players who are honest and hard working and I want to make sure we give 100% for the fans of this football club. .”
Toure inherits a Wigan side in the Championship relegation places, with his first game in charge away at Millwall on Saturday.
