New Standard Liege assistant coach Yaya Toure regrets not playing with Bayern Munich striker Sadio Mane.

Toure admits he urged Manchester City to sign Mane when he was leaving Southampton. The Senegal captain would eventually join Liverpool.

Ivory Coast great Toure told BBC Sport: "I always wanted to play with him [Mane].

"When I was at City, at the time when he was at Southampton, I highly regarded him and I was asking some of my superiors to just sign him. But in the end it just didn't happen.

"After that [Jurgen] Klopp had the eyes to get him and now look what he did for Liverpool, he was brilliant. I like him, I like him as a player.

"The way he deals with things smoothly and the support he gives back to his people in his country is incredible, with what he's been involved with.

"Some days I get mad when I read media about him and a journalist will ask him, 'Why don't you have a Ferrari and things', and he says, 'No, I don't need it, I prefer to have a normal car than have a Ferrari'.

"Two months later we see him, he's been doing things back in his home country, he's a big example."