‘Overweight’ Tevez symbol of Chinese largesse
Shanghai: When Carlos Tevez emerged in airport arrivals in Shanghai, he had a bunch of flowers thrust into his hands and his signing was heralded as a coup for Chinese football.
A blue Shanghai Shenhua scarf was thrown around his neck and hundreds of fans mobbed the Argentine forward, who had just sealed a transfer deal making him at that moment the best-paid footballer on the planet.
But just eight months later, the 33-year-old has become a symbol of Chinese clubs’ largesse that the Beijing government hopes will never be repeated.
Chinese fans and media have an unflattering nickname for Tevez, “Very Homesick Boy”, a play on how his name is pronounced in Chinese and a nod to problems he has had throughout his career settling anywhere.
Tevez, who reportedly pockets about $850,000 a week, has never stuck around for long at any club during a career that started at Boca Juniors in Argentina and took him to Brazil, England, Italy and back to Boca, before his surprise move to China in January.
Nobody expected him to stay long term in Shanghai.
But even his knockers are surprised at how quickly his Chinese adventure has unravelled and how poorly he has done on the pitch during a season dogged by injury and indifferent form.
New Shenhua coach Wu Jingui last week accused Tevez of being too overweight to play, then two days later said he had shown a better attitude and was doing extra training of his own will.
“With his current attitude, we will see a different Tevez,” Wu said.
When Tevez was brought on by Wu for the second half of Saturday’s derby at Shanghai SIPG the Argentine was met with a muted reception from the travelling Shenhua fans, though a few booed.
Shenhua were soon 3-0 down and although Tevez scored his third Chinese Super League goal, they were hammered 6-1.
Given his travails, fans had been fully expecting Tevez to leave when the season ends in November.
Now it would surprise nobody if Shenhua — struggling in the bottom quarter of the league — decided to cut their losses and let him go home before that.