Former Manchester City star Yaya Toure names Nigeria the most impressive team at AFCON 2025, praising their attack and overall performance

Former Manchester City and Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure has named Nigeria as the most impressive national team at the recently concluded African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament.

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Toure praised the Super Eagles for their attacking prowess, noting they scored 14 goals and conceded only four before their semifinal loss to hosts Morocco on penalties.

Nigeria later secured third place after beating Egypt in another penalty shootout.

In an interview with Bleacher Report Football, the four-time African Footballer of the Year also commended Algeria and Morocco for their performances, describing Morocco as pragmatic and effective in counterattacks.

“I’ve been seeing the AFCON, and I’ve been there as well. I’ve been impressed with Algeria; unfortunately, they were kicked out by Nigeria. I’m impressed by the team with Regradi, the manager of Morocco, very pragmatic, very direct and playing counterattack,” Toure said.

However, he singled out Nigeria for their consistency, goal-scoring, and talented players.

“I was impressed with Nigeria. Nigeria played good football. When you see the stats, they’ve been scoring more than usual goals, full strike, full attack, playing very good football. The most impressive for me, in my opinion, was Nigeria. The football they were playing, the goals they were scoring, the players winning, because I think they have two of the best African players in their team. They played such wonderful games, and they got kicked out by Morocco in the semifinal, as you can see,” he added.

Toure also acknowledged the quality of Congo and Ivory Coast, highlighting that the latter was young and inexperienced but promising.

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“Well, Congo was also good. I like Congo. They were doing well until they were kicked out by Algeria. I think Ivory Coast team was a young team, at times a bit naive, but anyway, it’s part of football and experience,” he said.