Hero to ‘homesick boy’
How troubled Tevez failed to live up to hefty contract and high expectations
SHANGHAI — Argentine star Carlos Tevez arrived in Shanghai to a hero’s welcome but sneaked out of China less than a year later and has now sealed a return to Boca Juniors.
The 33-year-old striker, whose former clubs include Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus, scored just four goals in the Chinese Super League and missed half the matches injured, out of form or out of shape.
AFP Sports traces Tevez’s turbulent 12 months in China and identifies the moment it all started to go wrong for him:
Big money
• Dec 29, 2016: Shanghai Shenhua, who once boasted a forward line of Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, said it had signed Tevez from Boca Juniors. Reports said he will earn about $870,000 a week, the highest wages in soccer.
• Jan 19, 2017: A beaming Tevez, a blue Shenhua scarf draped around his thick neck, is mobbed by hundreds of fans chanting “Carlos! Carlos!” as he touched down in Shanghai.
• Jan 21: Tevez vows to earn every yuan of his bumper contract. “There will probably be pressure, but because I love football very much, I will use my passion,” he told reporters through a translator.
• Feb 8: Tevez makes his debut but fails to score as Shenhua crashes out of the Asian Champions League in a 2-0 loss to Brisbane Roar, prompting the Australian club to mock on Twitter, “Carlos who?”
• March 5: Tevez makes his Chinese Super League (CSL) debut, scoring once and providing two assists in a 4-0 thumping of Jiangsu Suning.
Disney controversy
• April 15: The moment Shenhua fans begin to turn on Tevez. Apparently injured, he is spotted at Shanghai Disneyland the same day his team is in action. “We pay him tens of millions so that he can have a guided tour of Shanghai,” one disgruntled supporter writes on soccer website Hupu.
• May 27: Tevez brands Chinese players “clumsy” and “very naive” in a damning interview with Spanish television. He concludes that Chinese soccer is decades behind Europe, saying: “I don’t think they will get there in 50 years.”
• Aug 15: Injured once more, Tevez flies back to Argentina for treatment on another muscle injury. Shenhua says it fully expects him to be back and says he returned to his homeland with its blessing. “No one ever said he would leave (permanently),” a club spokesman tells AFP.
• Aug 30: Tevez returns to China and the club says he is fit to play. But Chinese media and Shenhua fans take to calling him “very homesick boy,” a nod to his troubles settling anywhere during his career and a play on how his name is pronounced in Chinese.
• Sep 11: With Shenhua struggling in the bottom half of the CSL, Uruguayan coach Gus Poyet quits. Technical director Wu Jingui takes over.
Overweight, dropped
• Sep 13: Wu wastes no time laying down the law, saying that Tevez is “overweight” and will not play until he shapes up. “When you are on the pitch, if you can’t play at 100 percent, then it is completely meaningless,” says Wu.
• Sep 15: Wu takes a more conciliatory tone, saying Tevez is showing a better attitude and doing extra training of his own will. “With his current attitude we will see a different Tevez,” says the coach.
• Sep 16: Tevez comes off the bench and scores but Shenhua is thumped 6-1 at rival Shanghai SIPG.
• Nov 2: With an FA Cup final against SIPG looming, Tevez sheds six kilos (13 pounds) and his club says he is determined to prove his doubters wrong.
• Nov 19: Tevez is left out of Shenhua’s lineup for the first leg of the Cup final at home with no reason given. It wins 1-0 in his absence.
• Nov 26: Tevez is once again absent from the lineup as his side wins the Cup. It transpires that he flew back to Argentina after being left off the squad for the second time.
• Dec 4: Tevez is ordered to return to Shanghai by Dec 26 if he wants to save his career in China.
• Jan 6, 2018: Tevez calls time on his China nightmare and signs for boyhood club Boca Juniors for a third time.