When Carlos Tevez announced to the world that he would be returning to Argentina last summer to play for his boyhood club, Boca Juniors, many were surprised. They didn’t understand. He was still just 31, they said, far too young for a man of his ability to walk away from Europe. He was arguably Juventus’ top player in his last season, and now he was going to a club and league in which he would fade into obscurity.
And for what? To return home? Few people outside of Argentina praised Tevez for the move, or understood why he was going back. Those people need to watch this interview:
In it, Tevez is asked about his character and the neighborhood he grew up in. He is praised by the interviewer, Alejandro Fantino, for being humble, and when Tevez is asked where his attitude comes from, he responds with this:
Alejandro: I'm not talking about being humble economically; I'm talking about their attitude towards life. In the hood that you 'grew up, are they a humble and loyal people?
Tevez: Yes, I'm getting together with my friends 1-2 times a week in the hood. My friends do not let me pay for anything. I have 5-6 friends [drinks water because he is getting choked up], of whom have three jobs. Every time I go see them They pay for everything, and I realize the kind of place I'm from.
Alejandro: That surprises you.
Tevez: It surprises me ... We were always like that and nothing changed, not even for me.
Alejandro: Nothing changed for you after everything that happened to you?
Tevez: No, We have what is our day to day life.
Check out this post by a Reddit user for a translation of the full video.
In case it wasn’t clear, Carlos Tevez is a multimillionare. No one would bat an eye if he were to pay for everything when with his boyhood friends, especially the unemployed ones. Yet, here those friends are paying for everything, insisting on doing so, even though they have so little money of their own. You can tell how much simply retelling the story moves Tevez.
If these are the men, and this is the neighborhood, that influenced Tevez to be the man he is today, it is not hard to understand why he wanted to come back home.
In Europe, footballers — not all, but many — live lives of unashamed fame and indulgence; not much is out of the cards when you have a few young millionaires hanging out together. That lifestyle couldn’t be any more different than the one Tevez came from, one that he clearly values.
He didn’t return home because it was the easy way out. He returned home because it was the right thing to do, for him.
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