English Premier League giants Manchester United has confirmed the signing of Ivory Coast international Eric Bailly from Villarreal CF.

The 22-year-old central defender played 25 times for Villarreal in La Liga last season, aside seven Europa League appearances. The player joined The Red Devils on a four year contract with the option to extend for a further two years.

Ivory Coast know that they will have to come up with a much better performance than in the reverse leg against Sudan in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.

Ivory Coast managed a third-place finish in the 2016 African nations Championship after managing to defeat Guinea 2-1 thanks to an own goal fromYoula and a fine effort from Badié.

For some time now, it was believed that Yaya Toure was on the verge of ending his international career and just focus on winning titles with Manchester City.

Yaya Toure along with Sergio Aguero are a few of the key players of the Premier League club and the English league is as competitive as it has ever been but despite this, Toure is eager on making a return to his national side after being absent for more than 9 months.

Ivory Coast manager Michel Dussuyer is unlikely to be without a couple of star names for the opening few rounds of the World Cup 2018 qualifiers.

HerveRenard is regarded as one of the successful managers in African football after having won the coveted Africa Cup of Nations title twice in his career.

Yaya Toure might become another Ivory Coast player to call it a day as far as International Football is concerned.

A couple of guys have left the scenes for Ivory Coast off late after the historic AFCON victory and it seems now the skipper Toure is also planning to follow the suit.

An announcement is being expected from Toure at some point of time this week.

February 8 of 2015 was a historical day for the national team of Ivory Coast as they defeated Ghana in the finals of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in a dramatic penalty session that saw all of the players of both teams taking the set-piece as they attempted to help their respective nations in sealing the piece of silverware which is awarded to a national team every 2 years.

Manchester City will be losing star midfielder Yaya Touré for up to a month during January, as the Ivory Coast international will be travelling to Africa in order to take part in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Touré is one of the popular names in African football and the 31-year-old is expected to provide a major lift to Ivory Coast in the efforts to finally win this trophy with the so-called Golden generation. Players like Didier Drogba representing some of the biggest clubs in the world, but we were unable to take Ivory Coast to success in this competition.

Didier Drogba announced his retirement from playing at the international stage with Ivory Coast on August 4 of the current year which was a huge blow for the national team of the African country as Drogba hanged up his boots for his country after having scored 65 goals.