DANNY WAS LEFT GAGA BY YAYA!

WHEN Yaya Toure turned up to train with Leyton Orient over the summer, Danny Johnson couldn’t help but reflect on their contrasting paths in the game – once he had stopped pinching himself.

- Paul Martin

After all, as the inform O’s frontman puts it: “When he was winning Champions Leagues and Premier Leagues, I was doing 12-hour shifts in a factory and playing Non-League for £50 a week.

“To wind forward a few years and be on the same team as him in training was an unbelievable experience.

“At first, people thought ‘what’s he doing here, it’s Yaya Toure?!’. But he became one of us.

“He was telling stories about his career, playing with Messi and all the top players, and he answered all our questions.”

The former Barcelona and Manchester City star’s stint in east London to help maintain his fitness may have been brief but the O’s were suitably buoyed by the sprinkling of stardust as both they and Johnson started the campaign in fine form.

Stardust