Two months into his tenure as manager of Argentine club Independiente, Carlos Tevez employed a school teacher to his backroom staff.
Part of his holistic approach to training includes his players having to solve mental strategy problems after being put through the wringer in an exhaustive physical session, to assess decision-making under pressure. He soon learned that some players could not do elementary maths equations.
“That is poverty. We can help the kid with food and a lot of things but studying, knowing how to defend himself, reading what he is signing, not getting screwed…” Tevez explained, after bringing in the teacher to help with reading, writing and arithmetic having noted the spectrum of social backgrounds within his team.
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Tevez has always been a person to do things his way; ditching Manchester United for rivals Manchester City, going AWOL under Roberto Mancini and refusing to learn English in protest of the lasting damage to some family members made as result of the Falklands War.
Tevez is loved in his home country and humoured Boca Juniors supporters when he ripped up his lucrative contract at Chinese outfit Shanghai Shenhua in 2018 to return to his boyhood club, less than a month after leaving.
While still adorned, those Boca smiles have somewhat mellowed since taking on the job at rivals Independiente in August. He arrived during a time when the club were battling relegation. Six months earlier, a banner was unfurled by club ultras which read: “Win on Sunday, or bullets for everyone.”
Tevez has since amassed a 45% win ratio and is helping one of Argentina’s most historic clubs become trophy-hunters once more. However, his arrival was not warmly greeted initially.
Fans staged protests over a Boca legend becoming the boss of Independiente, which was decided after a split board decision saw Tevez get the nod over former player Walter Erviti thanks to club president Néstor Grindetti’s deciding vote.
“I fully believe in my ability,” Tevez said at his unveiling. “I put my career as a coach at stake here." He insisted he was “not here for the money” and that he “got the job because I have the balls to take it”.
“You have to take off your dancing shoes, put on your trainers and get stuck in,” he added.
This isn’t his first coaching job. The 40-year-old took charge of Rosario Central in June 2022 after retiring from his playing career and was able to guide them away from relegation.
It wasn’t the smoothest of rides, though, and he ultimately left the club after 24 matches in the following November, citing club politics, having won just six games.
He’s won more than double the amount in his 29 games at Independiente, which started with back-to-back wins and an impressive 2-0 victory over Racing Club. Tevez has three of his brothers on staff, with his signature tactics based on quick transitions and not necessarily bags of possession.
Links with Boca have been rife despite signing a new deal in December, and questions over his future reached a new level when he cancelled a press conference after his side exited a cup competition earlier this month.
Any immediate plans will be put on hold after the 76-capped Argentina hero was rushed to hospital with chest pains on Tuesday.
An Independiente club statement said subsequent assessments carried out returned ‘satisfactory’ but he will "continue with a series of tests scheduled in advance as part of a general check-up.”
