Player name in full: Carlos Alberto Martinez Tévez
To/from dates: 2009- 2013
Number of appearances: 125
Goals scored: 74
Biography and City Career:
Tevez was born Carlos Alberto Martínez on 5 February 1984 in Ciudadela, Buenos Aires. He grew up in the neighbourhood of Ejército de Los Andes, better known as Fuerte Apache, a town with a high rate of criminality and poverty. It is where he got his nickname of “El Apache”. Young Carlos was adopted by his mother’s sister and her husband Segundo Tevez, and eventually changed his surname to Tevez.
After rejecting a permanent five-year contract with Manchester United, Tevez joined City on 14 July 2009. The player made his debut against Blackburn Rovers and scored his first goal with the club on 27 August 2009 against Crystal Palace in a 2-0 victory. He was awarded the Premier League Player of the Month for the first time in December 2009 and was one of the protagonists in the City’s 2010 FA Cup, that resulted in a victory for the Blues in the final against Stoke City. On 18 August 2010, Tevez was made club captain by the manager at the time, Roberto Mancini, replacing defender Kolo Touré.
Due to a disagreement with Mancini, following City’s game at Bayern Munich, Tevez was suspended during the 2011-12 season eventually resuming training on 14 February 2012.
Playing for the blue side of Manchester, Tevez won the FA Cup in 2010-11, the Premier League and the Community Shield in 2011-12.
Notable facts/stories:
In 2005, after winning the Campeonato Brasileiro title with Corinthians he became the first non-Brazilian to win the best player’s honour.
Together with his brother Diego, he is part of the Cumbia Villera musical group Piola Vago.
Non-City career:
Tevez began his football career at the age of 16, when he made his debut for Boca Juniors against Talleres de Córdoba in 2001. With the club, he won the Copa Libertadores, the Intercontinental Cup and the Copa Sudamericana in 2004.
After inheriting Diego Maradona’s number 10 shirt at the club, he moved to Brazil in 2005 where he joined Corinthians.
Despite signing a five-year contract, the forward moved to the UK in 2006 to join West Ham United. After playing for both Manchester United and City, the Argentinian was signed by the Italian side Juventus F.C. until he decided to return to his first club Boca Juniors in 2015. In 2018 he played in the Chinese Super League with Shanghai Shenhua.
Tevez won the gold medal with the Argentinian national side at the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece. He was a member of the Argentine National team in the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups. He was a member of the national side in the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, when Argentina lost to Brazil in the final.