Tevez prepares for River clash, ponders Chinese offer
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Carlos Tevez could be playing his last Argentine “superclasico” when he leads Boca Juniors against River Plate at El Monumental on Sunday as he ponders a move to China.
Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenua, who appointed Uruguayan Gus Poyet as coach last month, have made a 40 million euro ($42.27 million) offer for Tevez, Argentine media reported.
Former Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus striker Tevez would not be drawn, however, on his future plans.
“I’ve got too much of a muddle in my head to think if in February or March I’m going off to play in China,” Tevez was quoted as saying in Sports daily Ole.
“I don’t just think about leaving, I could also retire… When the year is over I’ll see what’s best.”
The 32-year-old looked set to see out the rest of his career at Boca when he returned home to his first club from Juventus last year and helped them win the league title.
A strong incentive to stay at Boca would have been playing next year’s Copa Libertadores but they failed to qualify.
Boca were eliminated in this year’s semi-finals of South America’s top club tournament which Tevez won with Boca in 2003.
Marking Tevez on Sunday will be Ecuador defender Arturo Mina, who joined River in August after helping former club Independiente del Valle reach the Libertadores final by beating Boca.
Tevez said he always had struggled to play well against River but hoped the team would continue their improvement since Fernando Gago’s return two weeks ago from an Achilles heel injury in April.
“I’ve always found clasicos hard to play. I can’t cross the barrier from fan to player,” Tevez said. “That doesn’t happen to me against other teams.
“But we’ve improved a lot… Fernando Gago has done us a lot of good, he’s a different class of player,” he said of the Argentina 2014 World Cup midfielder who orchestrated successive wins over San Lorenzo and Racing Club to put Boca in second place two points behind leaders Estudiantes.
($1 = 0.9463 euros)
(Writing by Rex Gowar, editing by Ed Osmond)