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24th May 2017

Yaya Toure and agent will make an incredibly generous gesture to the victims of Manchester attack

Fair play to them

Niall McIntyre

Yaya Toure and his agent, Dimitri Seluk, will donate £100,000 to help the victims of Monday’s attack at the Manchester Arena.

22 people, including children, were killed, and at least 59 were injured after the bomb attack following an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night.

Among the 21,000 concert goers were Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s wife and two daughters, all of whom escaped unharmed.

Dmitri Seluk, Toure’s Ukrainian agent, has made a name for himself in the past with a series of outspoken demands and complaints on behalf of the Ivorian, but the pair must be admired for this gesture.

Seluk told Sky Sports News that he and Toure were keen to do anything they could to provide assistance to the victims of the attack.

“Yaya and I want to help. We talked this morning about what happened and he asked me what he thought we could do. We have agreed to donate £50,000 each to help the victims of this terrible crime. It doesn’t matter whether the victims are from Manchester or not,” said Seluk.

The agent revealed that he and Toure wanted to give something back to football, given the opportunities they have received from the game.

“Those of us lucky enough to work every day in football can do so because of the generosity of fans across the world. Today is a chance for those of us in football to help out,” Seluk said.

“Yaya loves Manchester. He loves the people who have made him very welcome and he has been very shocked by this attack on the city. We all cried when we heard that children had been killed and injured. To see on the news that an eight-year-old girl had died was terrible. Our only demand is that every single penny of the money we give goes to the people who need it.”

An online fundraising campaign organised by the Manchester Evening News had raised over £700,000 as of Tuesday night.