Kolo to provide Christmas cheer back home

The 34-year-old has provided food and accommodation for an orphanage that houses around 100 kids in his homeland since 2012.

He now hopes to organise a party for the children so they can celebrate the festive period.

"I am lucky that I am able to help them,” Kolo told Press Association Sport. “Every month I send money to ensure they can have a good life and I will try to do that as long as I can provide.

"We are not perfect but if you can still help people you help them and I will always help people who are honest and those kids have done nothing.

"I think of them as my kids and to provide for them every month is nothing. I love to see them happy, that is most important.

"Everything I do on my own and I've never really talked about it but with Christmas coming it is a good time to do something.

"With Christmas coming I've tried to organise a Christmas party for them.

"I'd like to organise one or two big events, like a dinner, to raise money for a nice place for them to live and invest money to generate more for them."

Over two-thirds of the Ivory Coast are either Muslim or Christian, and the orphanage Toure supports children of all denominations.

He added: "There are different children from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.

"The Muslim religion teaches us to be nice people and to try to help people, Christian or Muslim it doesn't matter.

"The most important thing is to be nice with everyone you can and then everyone will respect you.

"It is a good thing for me to just try to help all those kids."