Kolo Toure announced his retirement from an active playing career on Friday as he takes a coaching role at Celtic. The centre-back has enjoyed a storied career - and has been a figure of fun at times - but ought to be remembered as one of Africa's all-time great players.
Indeed, as the former Ivory Coast international hangs up his boots, it's intriguing to examine where he stands among the continent's great centre-backs.
In truth, African defenders have never truly got the recognition their more offensive partners have received over the years.
Tshimen Bwanga is the only African centre-back to have ever won the African Footballer of the Year award, although goalkeeper Thomas N'Kono did on two occasions, while comparatively few defenders have ever made it onto the podium.
One of those is Sammy Kuffour, who was twice runner-up in the CAF award, and one of only 18 African players to have ever won the Champions League.
As well as his continental success with Bayern Munich in 2001 - two years after he was so memorably a defeated finalist at the hands of Manchester United - Kuffour also enjoyed a near-unparalleled period of dominance at a major club.
Indeed, there aren't any African players on the continent who can match his record of six Bundesliga titles -- won between 1997 and 2005 - during a remarkable spell with the Munich giants, and Kuffour was also an Intercontinental Cup winner in 2001.
If there is a flaw to his legacy, however, it's that he never won the Africa Cup of Nations, and only once reached the final four - in 1996.
Similarly, while Kuffour was part of the Ghana squad that reached a maiden World Cup in 2006, he was already fast approaching the end of his career, and largely missed out on the Black Stars' spell of success over the last decade.
Unlike Didier Drogba, who retired from Elephants duty after the 2014 World Cup, Toure remained to play a crucial role - in the middle of a defensive three between Wilfred Kanon and Eric Bailly - as the Ivorians won the Nations Cup in 2015.
As one of the elder statesmen as the Golden Generation began to disintegrate, he was named in the Team of the Tournament after a series of sterling displays, having also represented the West Africans at three World Cups and six previous AFCONs.
In contrast to Kuffour, Rigobert Song, another legendary African centre-back, enjoyed great success at international level, but found major European honours much harder to come by.
Song - like Toure, a Liverpool alumni - was part of the Cameroon side that won two AFCONs at the turn of the century -- winning the player of the tournament award in 2002 -- while he was also part of the Indomitable Lions side that clinched gold at the 2000 Olympics.
The former centre-back also represented Africa at four World Cups - a continental record - and was twice a Turkish champion with Galatasaray, having struggled to establish himself in the Premier League.
While few can match Song for charisma, force of personality or longevity, he rarely featured at the truly elite level of the European game - and thrived there even less, and was memorably exposed by Peter Crouch upon his return to Anfield in the 2006-07 Champions League group stage.
Toure ends his career with three major league titles, having won the Premier League with both Arsenal and - eight years later - with Manchester City, and having won the Scottish title with Celtic last season albeit after making just nine appearances.
He also won two FA Cups with Arsenal, and played his part as Celtic won an invincible domestic treble last term.
On the subject of longevity, Noureddine Naybet and Lucas Radebe deserve acknowledgement for over 200 appearances in La Liga and the Premier League with Deportivo La Coruna and Leeds United respectively.
Both were wanted by Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United at one stage - a testament to the quality of both players - but together, they managed just one major league title in Europe - Naybet's memorable maiden La Liga success with Depor in 2000.
That triumph, however, was not matched during the elegant centre-back's 115-cap tenure with Morocco, when the Atlas Lions reached the final four just once during the defender's 16-year international career - when they were defeated finalists in 2004.
Radebe, by contrast, did enjoy continental success with South Africa in 1996, but won precious little after leaving Kaizer Chiefs in 1994.
One iconic centre-back whose trophy haul cannot be disputed is Wael Gomaa, who was the rock at the base of the legendary Egypt and Al-Ahly sides of the last decade.
The centre-back was sublime in the air, remarkably consistent and - overlooking Egypt's 6-1 World Cup 2014 playoff thrashing at the hands of Ghana - unflappable during the high-profile matches.
He was an ever-present during the Pharaohs' trio of Nations Cup triumphs between 2006 and 2010 - beating Toure's Ivorians in the 2006 final and the 2008 semi- and won a whopping five CAF Champions Leagues with Ahly.
However, like so many of his compatriots, Gomaa's legacy suffers from never achieving any success in Europe. In the defender's case, his only foray across the Mediterranean was a failed trial with Blackburn Rovers in the 2006-07 season.
Could Gomaa, taken out of the context of Egypt or Ahly, have ever amassed the kind of silverware Toure did in Europe?
While Toure's career deserves to be considered among those of Africa's all-time greats - let alone the continent's finest defenders - it's intriguing to imagine how his legacy might have looked had it not been for a handful of near misses.
From an international perspective, it's remarkable that it took the Golden Generation until 2015 to win the AFCON, with Toure part of the side that had reached the final four on three previous occasions.
Similarly, failure to reach the knockout stages of the World Cup - particularly in 2014 when the Elephants conceded a 93rd penalty as Greece nabbed a second place in Group C - must also represent underachievement for such a talented selection.
At club level, a young, raw Toure was a key figure in Arsenal's Invincibles and deserves extensive recognition for his role in their title success of 2003-04 as a sprightly, powerful foil for Sol Campbell.
However, failure to win the Champions League in 2006, when Jens Lehmann was dismissed inside the first 20 minutes and the Gunners led until the last quarter of an hour, remains a missed opportunity for the club - and many of the players in that team who ultimately never won Europe's top prize.
And finally, there was Liverpool's near miss - and Steven Gerrard's slip - in the 2013-14 season, when a Reds side that conceded 50 goals ultimately fell two points short of Manchester City.
It was this that Toure identified as the greatest regret of his career, and it's testament to his enduring class and longevity that he was a slip away from becoming the first player to win the Premier League with three different clubs.