CARLOS TEVEZ

32. CARLOS TEVEZ

Carlos Alberto Tévez (born 5 February 1984 in Ciudadela, Buenos Aires Province) is an Argentine footballer who made his name with Argentine giants Boca Juniors and later in Brazil with Corinthians. He is currently a free agent after his registration was terminated by West Ham United, and is expected to sign with Manchester United.

He is regarded as one of the most promising prospects to come out of Argentina. Like Argentine teammate Lionel Messi, he has been labelled as the "New Maradona". Diego Maradona once described him as the "Argentine prophet for the 21st century".

Tévez was born as Carlos Alberto Martínez, and raised in the humble neighbourhood of Ejército de Los Andes, better known as "Fuerte Apache". It was from there where he got the nickname of Apache. His parents changed his surname to his mothers during a conflict between his junior club All Boys and Boca Juniors.[2]

Tévez has a distinctive burn from his right ear, down his neck to his chest. This occurred when he was ten months old while he was exploring the terrain of his mother’s kitchen floor and he inadvertently pulled a kettle of boiling water over himself. This caused third-degree burns to the right side of his face, neck and chest and left him in intensive care for almost two months. Today the scars are a highly visible feature of Tévez, who did not get them fixed because he was playing in a junior football team. He refused an offer from his then club, Boca Juniors, to have them cosmetically improved, saying that the scars were a part of who he was in the past and who he is today

Tévez joined Boca at the age of thirteen and played his first professional match with Boca on October 21, 2001 against Talleres de Córdoba. He played for the team until the end of 2004. With Boca Juniors he won an Argentine Championship (2003), a Copa Libertadores (2003), an Intercontinental Cup (2003), and a Copa Sudamericana (2004). Because of the Intercontinental Cup of 2003, he did not participate in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship with the Argentine team.

Following Argentina's and Tévez personal success at the 2004 Olympic Games, he was named Futbolista latinoamericano más destacado ("Most notable Latin American footballer") in 2003 by Latin American Fox Sports. In addition, the Argentine Football Writers chose him as Footballer of the Year and Sportsman of the Year 2004.

In December 2004, he transferred to Sport Club Corinthians Paulista for $20 million with a five year contract worth $10 million, following the Brazilian club's deal with Media Sports Investments. The deal was the biggest transfer ever in South American football. Initially, Tévez was not well received by the Corinthians fans - including Brazilian president Lula. However, Tévez became the captain and star of the team that won the 2005 Brazilian league and the fans' favourite player. When the 2005 Brazilian league ended, he was granted the award of best player of the tournament by the Brazilian football federation, becoming the first non-Brazilian player to win that award since 1976.

On 6 January 2007, Tévez made his first start for West Ham United under the management of Alan Curbishley against Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup 3rd round.

Tévez was a key part of Boca's victory in the 2003 Copa Libertadores but his greatest achievement was during the 2004 Olympic Games, where he won the gold medal with his team and scored eight goals in six matches to be the top scorer of the competition. He was the world's second Top Goal Scorer of 2004 in international competitions (according to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics[24]), one less than Ali Daei from Iran.

Tévez was selected by José Pekerman for Argentina for the 2006 World Cup. He started the first match against the Ivory Coast on the bench but came on as a substitute for the match against Serbia and Montenegro. He scored the fifth goal and assisted Lionel Messi's first goal which was Argentina's final goal in a superb 6-0 victory for them. In Argentina's drawn final Group C match against Holland, Tévez played the entire duration and emerged man of the match.