Yaya Toure would consider a shock move to Manchester United if he leaves Manchester City at the end of the season, according to the Ivory Coast midfielder’s agent.
Toure is out of contract once the current campaign is over and his representative Dimitri Seluk has started talks with interested clubs.
The 33-year-old has had a stormy relationship with City boss Pep Guardiola and was surprisingly left on the bench for his team’s Champions League last 16 second leg defeat at Monaco on Wednesday.
Toure hasn’t been offered a new contract by City and the former Barcelona star would even consider becoming one of the few players to move from the blue to the red side of Manchester.
Asked if he would be interested in United, Seluk told Sky Sports News: “Why not? Jose Mourinho is a very good coach. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was together with Yaya in Barcelona.
“I understand this is two clubs who are rivals but for me, for example, this is not a problem from Yaya or from me. This problem will be from Manchester City staff.”
Toure was frozen out by Guardiola earlier in the season after a row between the manager and Seluk, before the situation was resolved in November.
Guardiola has previously said contract matters will be dealt with at the end of the season, but Seluk says there is no guarantee Toure won’t have agreed a deal with another team by then.
“Some clubs have contacted me. Now we have three options. I don’t speak about Yaya and China or the MLS. He will play in Europe. I have spoken with clubs in different countries – Italy and Spain,” he said.
“I said to Manchester City that we will start negotiations with other clubs about the future of Yaya. After that, if Manchester City want, they can start negotiations. If they don’t want then we will find another club.
“Yaya can, tomorrow, sign a contract with another club and after that for Manchester City it is too late.
“From yesterday we officially started negotiating with different clubs about his future.
“We waited until March 15 for what Manchester City will say but until now Manchester City don’t say anything. Before March, we didn’t negotiate with anybody because Yaya does a lot with Manchester City, so we waited.
“But we cannot wait until the last minute, until June, and have no negotiations with anybody.”