Ivorian brothers Yaya and Kolo Toure are on a collision course at Wembley as their City and Liverpool sides face off for the first domestic trophy of the season.
There have been a few near-precedents in recent years, such as Anthony Gerrard playing his cousin Steven in the League Cup final of 2012, while Gary Neville would have faced his brother Phil in the 2009 FA Cup semi-final but he was on the bench.
Yaya and Kolo’s potential showdown is an intriguing subplot in a match with more subtextual strands than your average Shakespearean epic.
The Toures were teammates at City for three seasons and together won the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Community Shield.
This time they find themselves on opposite sides of the M62 divide, both hoping to be driving up the M6 on Monday morning with the precious cargo in tow.
Will the ribbons around the ears of the Capital One Cup trophy be sky blue or red?
Yaya versus Kolo
The pair have only been on the field on opposite sides on three occasions.
Interestingly, Yaya has never been on the winning side in games against Kolo.
Here’s how they’ve played out…
• Barcelona v City (0-1) 19 August 2009, friendly
• Liverpool v City (2-1) 1 March 2015, Premier League
• City v Liverpool (1-4) 21 November 2015, Premier League
Trophy count
The Toure brothers have won a combined 27 major trophies at both club and international level, with a few of those being won together as teammates.
However, it’s Yaya who has the edge, mainly due to his FC Barcelona exploits at the end of the last decade.
Yaya: 16
Kolo: 11
Premier League appearances
The more senior of the Toure twosome takes this one by virtue of arriving eight years earlier than his little brother Yaya.
Kolo appeared on more than 225 occasions for Arsenal between 2002 and 2009 before joining Liverpool, then City.
Yaya: 187
Kolo: 347
What they say…
The pair spoke to FourFourTwo.com about their rivalry back in 2013…
Yaya on Kolo: “Liverpool are now my biggest rival because that’s where he is now!”
Kolo on Yaya: “Yaya joined Barcelona a year after they beat Arsenal in the 2006 Champions League final, so if it had been slightly different we could have gone head-to-head in the biggest game in club football. It just wasn’t meant to be!”
