PLAYER PROFILE

Kolo Toure

Position: Defence

Height: 6'0

Weight: 12st 0lbs

Date of Birth: 1981-03-19 Sokoura Bouake, Ivory Coast

Kolo Toure

Arsene Wenger moved to sign Ivory Coast international Kolo Toure in February 2002 as cover for Lauren.

Kolo is an established international for his country and has been playing in the Ivory Coast first team since 2000.

He was expected to battle it out with Lauren for the Gunners coveted right back slot, but instead he operated in a more attacking role when he did play.

Toure had a mixed first season at Highbury, starting 16 times for his new club, but he will want to forget his first trip to Villa Park when he scored an own goal which cost Arsenal two valuable points.

His second season was an unreserved triumph after he was moved alongside Sol Campbell as a makeshift centre-half. Surely not even Arsene Wenger could have anticipated Toure to be such a revelation there, but he would have been delighted to see his defensive problem so easily solved as the Gunners won the league without a single league defeat.

The success continued into the 2004/05 season as Toure made a further 49 appearances for his club, scoring once against Bayern Munich.

The only downer in Toure's season came from a three-match ban after he appeared to elbow Alan Shearer during a Barclays Premiership match against Newcastle in January. Although he was not reprimanded by the referee during the game, Toure pleaded guilty to an FA charge of violent conduct and was banned for three matches.

The 2005/06 season saw no such controversies as Toure made 45 appearances in the Arsenal defence and scored once, a crucial goal in the Champions' League semi-final first leg against Villarreal which proved to be the difference between the sides and took the Gunners to the European Cup final for the first time in their history.

During the summer, he went to Germany, playing for the Ivory Coast in a tough World Cup group consisting of Holland, Argentina and Serbia and Montenegro. Even though they went out, beating only Serbia 3-2, they were unlucky to have been involved in such a difficult group and will take alot of heart from their gutsy performances.

Toure enjoyed a reasonably successful campaign in 2006/07, as he played 53 times, scoring four goals along the way. He also captained the club for the first time in their stunning 6-3 victory over Liverpool in the Carling Cup.

However, it was in the final of that tournament that provided Toure with his low-point as he was sent-off for his role in a brawl towards the end of the match.

He managed to avoid such controversey in 2007/08, and is now considered one of the most important members of Arsene Wenger's team.