Manchester City and Ivory Coast legend Yaya Touré became the first-ever African manager to lead a football club to the group stage of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night.

He achieved the feat with Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia. The team secured their ticket to the group stage after a 2-1 extra-time win over Celje in the second leg of the final qualifying-round match at Arena Z’dežele. Cristian Martínez scored the winner in the 100th minute as Slovan won the pulsating double-header 3-2 on aggregate.

Touré, who is in his first top-level managerial role, surpassed the achievement of Ndubuisi Egbo, the Nigerian coach who led FK Tirana of Albania to UCL qualification but failed to progress beyond the qualifying stage in 2020.

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Slovan Bratislava remain undefeated in the Slovak League with four wins from four matches and are the defending champions.

In the first leg, the Slovak club produced a 1-1 draw at home. In the away leg, they survived a late onslaught before netting the winner in the 100th minute. Andraž Šporar put Touré’s team ahead in the 18th minute, before Celje responded in the 34th minute through an awarded penalty, converted by Svit Šešlar.

Before taking up the managerial role at Slovan in July 2026, the 43-year-old had a storied playing career with Barcelona and Manchester City, winning La Liga twice, the Premier League three times, and the UEFA Champions League in 2008-09. He also won the Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast in 2015.

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After hanging up his boots in 2020, Touré served as assistant manager at multiple clubs, including Standard Liege and the Saudi Arabia national team. He also served as head coach of Tottenham Hotspur’s U16 academy.

The team will learn about their group stage opponents on Thursday after the UEFA Champions League group stage draw.