Carlos Tevez announces that he is leaving Boca Juniors

Carlos Tevez announces that he is leaving Boca Juniors during a press conference held in La Bombonera, on June 4. Javier Garcia Martino / EFE

Boca Juniors loses the last of its great idols.

Carlos Tevez, incarnation of that rare species of player who is both a fanatic fan and an idol of the stands, announced this Friday in Buenos Aires that he is leaving the club to which he has dedicated a good part of his life, never to return.

Through tears, he read a letter in which he admitted that at 37 he is no longer "mentally prepared" for what Boca demands of him on and off the court.

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The death of his father in February had a lot to do with the decision. Tevez regretted not having time to do the duel, due to the demands of the team's schedule. And the stadiums without an audience of the pandemic were not enough to keep alive the competitive Apache flame. "I have nothing else to give," he said. “Boca always demanded 120% of me and I am no longer prepared to give that. For me Boca is the best club in the world. My father was from Boca, my mother, my wife and my children, ”he said.

Tevez made his announcement at the Bombonera, surrounded by the club's president, Jorge Ameal, the coach, Miguel Ángel Russo, and Boca's second vice president, former player Juan Román Riquelme. The relationship between Tevez and Riquelme was never good, but at the final farewell they hugged each other. El Apache, for “Fuerte Apache”, the name that gave fame to the humble neighborhood where he was born, said that for now he will not leave professional football, but he did not hide that he is not lacking in enthusiasm. Today I tell you yes. I want to be a husband, I want to be a father, I want to be with my mother. But maybe in a while I'll get up and want to play again, but it won't be in Boca ”.

Without Apache, Argentine soccer loses its only figure with an international dimension that was still active. And Boca to his last star, idol of his most glorious stage. Tevez was in that team that in 2003 in Japan, under the guidance of Carlos Bianchi, he snatched the Intercontinental Cup from Carlo Ancelotti's Milan. The photo of the Argentine with a kimono and the glass in his arms walking through the Bombonera put him in the pantheon of idols with only 19 years. Then came the international career: he won six championships with Manchester United and three with Manchester City in England, four with Juventus in Italy and one with Corinthians in Brazil.

He reached consecration in 2008, when he won the Champions League with Manchester United, and then the Club World Cup. In 2017 he left Boca to play in China (he was champion with Shanghai Shenhua), but returned the following year to Argentina still with much to give. With the national team of his country he won three titles: the gold medal in Athens 2004, the Pre-Olympic of the same year and the South American Sub 20 in 2003. With the older players, however, he had more lows than highs, to the point that he was even out of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. In Boca, the team that never completely left, played 279 games in three different stages, won 11 titles and scored 94 goals. Statistics that will now remain in the history books xeneixe.

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