![\"Liverpool](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/12.jpg\")
Liverpool squad sing the Kolo Toure song in Dubai<\/p>\nKolo Toure joined Liverpool on this day 12 years ago and one memorable moment arguably defined his legacy at the clubLiverpool squad sing the Kolo Toure song in Dubai<\/p>\n
It\u2019s impossible not to love Kolo Toure. A firm fan-favourite at Liverpool, the Ivorian arrived at Anfield<\/a> on a free transfer from Manchester City on this day in 2013 as a replacement for club legend Jamie Carragher<\/a>.<\/p>\n In three seasons he would make 71 appearances, scoring one goal, and was a part of the side that narrowly missed out on Premier League<\/a>, Europa League<\/a> and League Cup<\/a> titles under Brendan Rodgers<\/a> and Jurgen Klopp<\/a>. Yet the defender wasn\u2019t even present for arguably the most memorable moment of his Liverpool career in May 2015.<\/p>\n Toure, now 44 and on Pep Guardiola’s Man City coaching staff, came on as a half-time substitute in the Reds\u2019 infamous 6-1 defeat to Stoke City, which was Steven Gerrard<\/a>\u2019s final game for the club.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Liverpool handed possible \u00a370m transfer boost as Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz stances set to be tested<\/a>READ MORE: Liverpool could raise over \u00a3200m with huge sales this summer as Richard Hughes plots next moves<\/a><\/p>\n Hours after the final whistle, the majority of the Liverpool <\/a>squad were off on a post-season holiday to Dubai as a celebratory send-off for their legendary skipper.<\/p>\n It was during this trip where a video of the Reds squad singing the famous Kolo and Yaya Toure chant, to the tune of \u2018No Limit\u2019, went viral, with Gerrard uncharacteristically jumping up and down at the front as he led his team-mates in song.<\/p>\n Yet Kolo Toure was nowhere in sight, having been forced to miss the trip.<\/p>\n But while he was absent in Dubai, he was in part still responsible for the impromptu chanting following a phone call to his captain as the Liverpool squad headed on a night out.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went off in a big stretch Hummer,\u201d Gerrard recalled in his autobiography published in 2015. \u201cAll 25 of us were in the Hummer and on the beers.<\/p>\n \u201cMy phone was on the music system. The music suddenly stopped as I had a call. Kolo Toure\u2019s name came up on the phone. I put Kolo on loudspeaker.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was phoning to apologise to me, the Big Man, for not being with us. He had a charity match in the Ivory Coast. We were chatting away but after a while I could hardly hear Kolo.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lads had all started singing the Kolo and Yaya song in his honour. They were still singing it after I said goodbye to Kolo and we got out of the Hummer and made our way to the restaurant.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to go up an escalator and I went ahead so I could film the boys. They looked good singing and dancing together. Next thing I know Mamadou Sakho grabbed my phone.<\/p>\n \u201cI could have stayed out of it but, f**k it, I am the captain. I lead from the front. So I raced over to the front of the dancing and singing crew. I took charge. I got into it big time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever we chanted \u2018Kolo\u2026 Kolo, Kolo\u2026 Kolo, Kolo Toure!\u2019 the boys all went low, ducking down to near floor level. And then we went up, climbing high, reaching to the sky as we chanted \u2018Yaya\u2026 Yaya, Yaya\u2026 Yaya, Yaya Toure!\u2019 And then I led them down low again for the next \u2018Kolo\u2026 Kolo, Kolo\u2026 Kolo, Kolo Toure!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cA security guard grabbed my phone off Sakho. And then we had a full set as Sakho joined in and we chanted \u2018Kolo\u2026 Kolo, Kolo\u2026 Kolo, Kolo Toure!\u2019 and \u2018Yaya\u2026 Yaya, Yaya\u2026 Yaya, Yaya Toure!\u2019 The security guard filmed us on a hot, sticky and happy night in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n \u201cHow else, but through football, my underlying passion, could I have ended up here, feeling so blissfully crazy, singing in Dubai about two brothers from the Ivory Coast, one a team-mate and the other an old rival from Manchester City?\u201d<\/p>\n Gerrard continued: \u201cWhen we got to the restaurant, we had a group chat on WhatsApp and I put the video up so everyone could see it. We surprised ourselves. Within 24 hours we had gone viral.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the lads had sent it to a mate who had posted it on YouTube. It went bonkers. The England women\u2019s football team did the song and I had Sunday League sides sending me videos of their versions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe girls back home were entertained. \u2018Daddy, what are you doing?\u2019 they asked, reasonably enough. \u2018That\u2019s not you\u2019. But it was me. Away from the pressure and the worry, the responsibility and the striving, the ambition and the heartache, I could also dance and chant: \u2018Kolo\u2026 Kolo, Kolo\u2026 Kolo, Kolo Toure!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Looking back, it seems most surreal that such a night took place barely 24 hours after Liverpool had been thrashed at Stoke. Sitting in the dressing room at the Britannia after the game, Gerrard thought, “Can we cancel it? It looks so bad to be going away after such a heavy defeat.”<\/p>\n As a result, “for the first 24 hours it was a subdued trip,” as “no-one said much on the flight…still in shock after the game five hours earlier.”<\/p>\n Fortunately, Liverpool were able to bounce back and enjoy their trip as they gave Gerrard a send-off to remember.<\/p>\n At Stoke, they had hit rock-bottom and were about to wave off the club\u2019s greatest ever player. But in Dubai, as they chanted Kolo Toure\u2019s name, they started to pick up the pieces.<\/p>\n It wouldn’t be the last time this group of players would be encouraged not to dwell on such failure. Just 12 months later, after losing the Europa League final, new manager Klopp would order his squad onto the dancefloor as he demanded they stopped being so miserable.<\/p>\n “Going back to the hotel where there’d have been a party if we won, as a player you’re just so down. You just want to go to bed really and just try to sleep,” Jordan Henderson<\/a>, who took over from Gerrard as Reds captain, would recall.<\/p>\n “There were a few of us in the corner because he (Klopp) said everybody when we get back is down to the reception bar area. Everybody comes down and a few of us are sitting in the corner with our tails between our legs.<\/p>\n “He comes over and said: ‘Are yous going to be like this all night, why are you so miserable? It’s a bad moment but that’s when you stay together and need everyone together. Also, this is just the beginning’.<\/p>\n “By the end, he basically said he wanted us all on the dancefloor by the end of the night. We were singing ‘We are Liverpool’. It was totally different to anything that I’ve ever experienced before.”<\/p>\n