Multichampion in Boca and on the soccer planet, figure of the last year of Miguel Ángel Russo’s team and with 37 years showing up for the end of his career, Carlos Tevez was again involved in the internal noise of the blue and yellow dressing room. This time as the spokesperson for a collective complaint from the campus that questions the forms and decisions of the Soccer Council headed by Juan Román Riquelme.
It is the last link in different scenes that had the Apache as a protagonist since he decided to return to Boca in 2015, when he came from being a finalist in the Champions League with Juventus, in a return that mobilized fans, passion and filled the Bombonera. The years that followed had Tevez also in the noise of interns with other heavyweight of the club.
In 2015, with Rodolfo Arruabarrena as DT, Tevez wore his European badge on the court and led the team to the title. But outside of it it generated short circuits that included friction with the way of working on a day-to-day basis. Accustomed to other standards in Italy, he even showed public discomfort because Boca did not have a suitable gym.
In the newspaper he also knew how to mark counterpoints with Juan Simón, then manager, but his voice was heard with force before the defeat in the classic with San Lorenzo for the Argentine Super Cup, in Córdoba. “Since I’ve been here, it’s the first final I’ve lost, I don’t know what others are talking about,” he broke off when he signed up for the squad. That weakened the leaders of the moment such as Agustín Orion and Daniel Cata Díaz.
Carlitos and the Basque, in 2016.
Soon after Arruabarrena emigrated. And beyond the representative of Apache approached the name of Sampaoli, the choice of Daniel Angelici was Guillermo Barros Schelotto. And there Charlie Brown took a new role, revitalized and once again showed all its hierarchy. Until in the break in the relationship Daniel Osvaldo -his friend- and the DT again generated shorts with the firm hand of the coach. The disappointing elimination of the Cup against Independiente del Valle – until today Tevez admits that it is the tournament that hurt him the most – and his poor performance led him to think about leaving football. But it continued. And he showed a very high level, with key goals. Until in December of that 2016, in a surprising and painful way, he left for China.
Tevez and Guillermo, together in 2018.
After a 2017 with Boca without an international tournament but with a very high football, Angelici communicated the decision to return to take Tevez. Earlier, there was a conclave at a very private dinner at the concentration hotel. There, Barros Schelotto, Charlie Brown and Angelici agreed on some guidelines for coexistence and the relationship seemed to get on track.
“Guillermo brought (Mauro) Zárate to get me out”, was the reflection that Tevez kept on the decision of the coach to incorporate someone similar in his position. The day to day at that time marked that the Twin opted for other players and even relegated Ramón Wanchope Ábila, always very close to Charlie Brown. And Angelici more than once had to intercede to get them on a plane or have them taken into account for a concentration. The postponement of Tevez in the finals against River de la Copa (he did play as a starter in the defeat in Mendoza by the Argentine Super Cup) ended up showing the distance between the captain and the technician on duty. In the middle there was also crossfire from Charlie Brown with Ricardo Centurión, the forward that Guillermo loved yes or yes in the group.
Tevez and Alfaro ended badly. (Photo: Marcelo Carroll).
“Tevez is my flag,” he said Gustavo Alfaro a few minutes after stepping on Boca. The technician arrived and positioned Charlie Brown in a privileged place from the speech to motivate him and re-squeeze the sacred fire that he had lost in 2017 and 2018. But between the bad level and the coach’s gaze, the cycle was consolidated without Tevez as the starter. Even the one who crack detonated his anger just before a Superclassic, with a parade before the cameras showing his annoyance.
“The only long face that I put on Alfaro was against River because I found out that he was not playing in the locker room; I feel that he disrespected me. Alfaro told me it was his emblem, his captain and it took him two games to put me on the bench” , shot hard Charlie Brown Against the one who was already his former coach, the one who had arrived with Nicolás Burdisso, with whom the fair distance also led to tension over the renewal of his contract. “Nobody from Boca offered me to renew yet,” complained the Apache in the middle of the competition. A message.
The change of leadership in the club with a political color that Tevez supported, a contract to be finalized, the image of Riquelme with old pending talks, the absence of his friend Daniel Angelici and a football level under review seemed a combo that would transform 2020 at the end of Carlitos in Boca.
“I thank Román, we talked about football and I think I felt hungry to win again,” Tevez said shortly after taking another Olympic lap with the team, in the Super League in which he was a figure, starter and in which he scored the title goal.
A phrase that he reiterated in San Juan, after beating Banfield, and in which he included Miguel Angel Russo, the DT with whom he feels confident, President Jorge Ameal and even Chelo Delgado (member of the Soccer Council) for having accompanied him in the delicate situation of the father. The exclusion of Jorge Bermúdez and Raul Cascini did not seem whimsical.
Angelici and Tevez, together on the Coast. A photo that made noise.
It was in public the clash between the Pattern and Carlitos in the middle of a bid for the renewal of the Apache contract. The harsh definition of “former player” when referring to the level he had until before 2020 altered things. On the one hand, Tevez requested an unpayable figure for the club in the middle of a pandemic. On the other, Bermúdez linked it with his political past (NdR: Tevez publicly expressed himself in favor of Daniel Angelici) and also with former president Mauricio Macri. With him the relationship became null.
From 2015 to today, Tevez played 152 games and scored 52 goals. High, low, medium levels. Holder and alternate. He went through all the stadiums. He achieved seven titles, with more or less prominence, although with the international debt that he is still trying to pay off. Now, Carlitos – without the endorsement of many of his companions, who had no problems with this conduction – returned to the center of the scene. With a new internal conflict. And with Boca in the middle, of course.