Kolo Toure paid homage to his “mentor” Brendan Rodgers after being unveiled at Wigan Athletic in his first managerial position.
Toure, 41, left his coaching role under Rodgers at Leicester City to sign a three-and-a-half-year contract with the Championship club.
The former centre-half played under Rodgers at Liverpool and Celtic before hanging up his boots and moving into the backroom staff at the Glasgow club in 2017. He most recently became Rodgers’ assistant with the Foxes.
Toure joins Reading’s Paul Ince, Hull City’s Liam Rosenior and Burnley’s Vincent Kompany as a black manager in the Championship.
He is joined by first-team coaches Ashvir Johal, who he worked with at Leicester, and black former manager of Crawley Town Kevin Betsy in a diverse dugout.
Johal wears a Patka – a traditional head covering worn by Sikhs – and is the first Sikh to hold a senior coaching role in England’s professional game.
Toure inherits a Wigan team in the relegation places in the Championship, with his first game in charge away at Millwall on Saturday.