The Colorado Rapids waived forward Dantouma “Yaya” Toure, an 18-year-old Homegrown Player on Thursday, the team announced.
The move came as a bit of a surprise given Toure had previously been viewed as one of the strongest Homegrown prospects within the organization.
At the time of his signing in 2021, Rapids executive Pádraig Smith said, “We believe he has all the qualities necessary to develop into an elite player and are excited to see what the future holds for him.”
Now a future with the club will not continue.
The Post reached out to the club for additional comments, but the Rapids did not provide a public statement or context as to why he was released. A team spokesman told The Post “it is related to a personal matter,” but declined to comment further.
Toure registered six first-team appearances and also made 15 appearances for Rapids 2 in 2022, scoring a total of nine goals for the club. He joined Colorado from New York Red Bulls in 2021 on a four-year contract in which Colorado traded $50,000 in 2021 General Allocation Money with incentives and got priority rights out of the trade, which meant he could maintain his Homegrown status and did not take up a budget charge.
In 2022 per the MLS Players’ Association Salary Guide, his guaranteed compensation was $80,118.
Three weeks after scoring his first senior goal in August 2022 against his former club, Toure underwent surgery on an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) torn that month at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. It was the second time he suffered such an injury as he also tore his ACL on the same knee in 2018.
A promising prospect when he signed, the Guinean-born forward went on to to represent the U.S. youth national team at the under-16 and under-17 levels.
Releasing Toure means it will open up one supplemental roster spot for the Rapids.
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