Cheick Tioté (1986-2017)

[Dokko]

IN JUST three months Cheik Tiote has proved himself one of the Premier League’s top midfielders.

 

That’s not bad for a player who feared he couldn’t play football the first time he put on a pair of boots nine years ago.

 

For Newcastle’s £3.5m buy fro m Dutch outfit FC Twente spent his formative years in the Ivory Coast playing the game barefoot.

 

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Growing up in the dusty, crowded streets of Abidjan may have been a million miles away from his life today as a millionaire footballer.

 

But Tiote’s was a happy childhood, until one day when he was 15 and he finally wore football boots for the first time.

 

Suddenly the youngster who had stood out among his peers when they kicked a ball about wherever they could find the space to play, was filled with self-doubt.

 

“I played for nearly five years barefoot,” he said. “I rarely even saw a pair of boots. I started playing when I was about 10 but there were a lot of basic materials lacking.

 

“The pitches were basic and it was obviously very different to England. When I first started wearing boots, it felt very strange. But gradually I got used to them and was OK.”

 

Tiote became so accustomed to his boots, he soon attracted Belgian scouts and left Africa bound for Brussels and a spell at Anderlecht.

 

His big break came at Twente, where he helped the club, then managed by Steve McClaren, win the Eredivisie title.

 

That feat earned Tiote his move to Newcastle and the former England coach a switch to Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg. These days, the 24-year-old owns so many pairs of boots, he sends many of them back to the Ivory Coast, so today’s kids don’t have to play barefoot.

 

Not that Tiote regrets his upbringing. He added: “In a way I think playing in my bare feet helped me a lot. It teaches you how to control the ball and pass correctly.

 

“If you are playing with the protection of a boot, sometimes you can get away with your mistakes. When playing just with your feet you can’t do that. You have to learn technique.”

 

Tiote is proud of his roots and while he is not yet rivalling compatriot Didier Drogba for popularity – “he is even more important than the President!” – Toon shirts are becoming more prominent in Abidjan.

 

“The lifestyle of a Premier League player is obviously very different to what I grew up with,” he said. “Then, I did not own a pair of boots and now I have at least 10 pairs. In fact, I have so many, I send some of them back home to my brother. I also send Newcastle shirts, shorts and socks, the type of stuff I’d love to have owned when I was growing up. It’s nice to be able to help the children back home.”

 

Newcastle fans can vouch for Tiote’s superb technique. Since his debut at Everton in August, he has rivalled top scorer Andy Carroll as the club’s most impressive player.

 

Tough in the tackle, composed in possession, full of energy, he has been compared to fellow Africans such as Claude Makelele, Patrick Vieira and Michael Essien.

 

And there’s talk that a player first identified by former manager Chris Hughton two years ago is now attracting interest from Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

 

But Tiote insists he is settled at Newcastle, who today visit Birmingham for Alan Pardew’s first away game in charge, hoping to build on last week’s impressive 3-1 win over Liverpool when the Ivory Coast international was arguably the best player on the pitch.

 

“Everything has been great since I arrived,” he said. “Apart from the cold, it is even more freezing than Holland.”

[Ryan_Taylor]

Lies, does look like he bitches about the cold

[Exiled in Texas]

http://19foster92.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/snow-inside-st-james-park.jpg

 

 

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQEwBm6ftwBiPjnkMtxdcJqvAlpoAeQs5l4WO9VP9W-c5k4it3-aw

 

[Boosden]

:lol:

[thomas]

I wish I could share the tiote-head meme but I don't think anyone would get it  

[timeEd32]

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f301/Indianajeep/INDIANA_JONES_RAIDERS_LOST_ARK-0-1.jpg

 

 

 

 

http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/indiana-jones-finest/melty-toht.gif

[cubaricho]

I love that he plays the game so differently than the majority of players.  Most players will see the ball and themselves as one but Tiote uses his body and the ball totally independently of each other in a very real way. 

 

This probably doesn't make sense but I hope that it does.

[hakka]

anyone fear us losing Tioté like the way we lost Dietmar Hamann?

[Ronaldo]

No. Liverpool are almost as bad as us.

[Guest McLøvenkrands]

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/may2009/2/5/image-5-for-england-world-cup-bid-2018-gallery-690542108.jpg

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42581000/jpg/_42581105_416stadium_ap.jpg

 

[Hanshithispantz]

http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/blog-images/2007/10/15/LLC_4435-BearShit.jpg

 

 

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/may2009/2/5/image-5-for-england-world-cup-bid-2018-gallery-690542108.jpg

 

 

[Ridman]

http://i56.tinypic.com/o77mgi.jpg

[Jill]

That is terrifying.

[Guest Stephen927]

Tell you what I bet he was thankful those Barca shirts are stretchy.

[Disco]

fucking hell. First marky's post then this. Too much.

[Pilko]

class :lol: :lol:

[Thespence]

Pards:

 

And he wants to keep Ivory Coast schemer Chiek Tiote at Newcastle for as long as possible, saying: “We need to protect Tiote and ensure he stays for the next five or six years.”

 

 

Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Newcastle-United-manager-Alan-Pardew-wants-Steven-Taylor-to-stay-at-the-club-article653785.html#ixzz18VeRah9Z

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[Pilko]

I like some of the things he's been saying. If he can carry them out, we'll be reet.

[ponsaelius]

ridman

[hallihg]

http://www.davelgil.com/World-Trade-Center-Before8.jpg

 

 

http://stopviolence.com/images/9-11/groundzero-cut.jpg

 

 

http://girlstalkinsmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Britney-Spears-misdemeanor-driving-case.jpg

 

http://lesombre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/britney.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ronaldo]

I think that's called a post of redemption.

[Nobody]

I think that's called a post of redemption.

:lol:

[Thespence]

Calls for Ashley to give Cheik Tiote six-year deal

 

ALAN Pardew has called for Mike Ashley to tie Cheik Tiote to Newcastle United for the next SIX years – as top European clubs begin to circle their midfield dynamo.

 

Tiote – a £3.5million summer snip – has been nothing short of brilliant since joining from FC Twente back in August, turning in man-of-the-match performances against Arsenal, Sunderland and then against Liverpool last weekend.

 

And those sparkling displays have made him the talk of scouts across the land, with Chelsea one of numerous clubs understood to be taking notice of his rapid progress.

 

The Blues’ top scorer Didier Drogba is a close mate of Tiote and has already recommended him to the top brass at Stamford Bridge, who have bundles of cash to spend in January.

 

But just as he will resist approaches for Joey Barton and Andy Carroll, Pardew is in no mood to flog Newcastle’s Ivorian sensation.

 

Certainly Toon are under no pressure to sell Tiote, having got him on a four-year deal just four months ago. But from the mere glimpses he’s seen at training and on DVD this week, Pardew knows that may need assessing at the end of the season.

 

In some ways, Tiote’s form has been incredible considering he had never played in the English domestic game before. A bit part player in Holland, he arrived on Tyneside amid minimal fanfare.

 

But as soon as he took to the pitch at Goodison Park for his first start, it was clear Newcastle had unearthed a rough diamond.

 

A diamond that United’s boss believes will get better. Because the Newcastle chief has revealed that Tiote rarely imposes himself during training sessions or in the run-up to games.

 

Young, unable to speak the language and with a naturally quite deferential manner, he is a shadow of the player who turns up at 3pm every Saturday to deliver lion-hearted displays.

 

Pardew reckons that encouraging him to come out of his shell in and around the training ground could squeeze even better performances out of a player who has bullied some more senior Premier League players since moving to Newcastle.

 

“Cheik has impressed me. But interestingly, when you look at him on DVD and in the stadium, the first impression you get is he’s a big, big player,” Pardew said.

 

“But at the training ground he looks very little. He’s only young, he’s got a lot to learn. But certainly on the pitch he’s been a massive player for this club.

 

“He will get better. One hundred per cent he will get better from where he is now.

 

“But he is a player we need to protect and we need to make sure that he stays at Newcastle United for the next five or six years because he is a big, big player for us.”

 

It has been a hectic first full week for Pardew, whose preparations for today’s ultimately postponed game were hit by the arctic blast.

 

Conditions have been such that the ball has been held up on the waterlogged pitch, making it difficult for Pardew to properly assess his players.

 

That will no doubt have frustrated the new Toon boss, who is something of an information junkie.

 

A Prozone zealot, he has been trawling through DVDs and holding long summits with coaches Steve Stone and Willie Donachie to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the squad he inherited.

 

But one thing that he doesn’t need DVDs and computer programmes to tell him about is the character of his team, something abundantly obvious judging by the way they reacted to his appointment.

 

Full of nothing but praise for their professional attitude, he singled out the senior men for special praise.

 

“That is something you have to admire in the group – the way they did that so readily.

 

“They are aware that this is a big club and they are professional players paid very good money and they need to be professional in everything they do,” he said.

 

“They have done more than that for me, if I am honest. But that is the very least I would have expected. I got that and more and I admire them even more for that.”

 

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/newcastle-united/2010/12/19/calls-for-ashley-to-give-cheik-tiote-six-year-deal-79310-27850577/

[thenige]

Would have been better if he'd say: "he's so much better than Alan Smith it's embarrassing", but his heart is in the right place.

[Skeletor]

Would have been better if he'd say: "he's so much better than Alan Smith it's embarrassing", but his heart is in the right place.

 

Well for all his rent a quote behaviour this week at least he hasn't started talking about giving Smith a new contract.