Carlos Tèvez

A very successful player both at national as well as club level. Carlos Tevez won two Argentinean titles, two Libertadores Cup titles and the World Club Championship with Boca Juniors before signing for Brazilian club Corinthians in an £13.7m deal in December 2004, a record between two South American clubs. The deal was financed by Media Sports Investments, a group of investors headed by Kia Joorabchian who also owned a controlling stake in Corinthians. With Corinthians he won the Brazilian title and was named the competition's best player.

Carlos entered the Premier League under the most curious of circumstances. He was signed by West Ham in a shock move on transfer deadline in August 2006 together with fellow countryman Javier Mascherano, only to be frozen out of the team by Manager Alan Pardew. When he was finally brought into action by new Manager Alan Curbishley he almost single-handedly secured the survival of the struggling London-club instead of Sheffield United. The troublesome 3rd-party ownership model was brought into ligh and. West Ham was fined £5.5m by the FA but spared a points deduction after pleading guilty. Later they also had to make amends with Sheffield United, paying more than £10m to make the Championship club drop all charges.

The story took another twist with Carlos signing for Manchester United in August 2007 this time on a 2 year loan deal. This was later described as the last of its kind of deals involving 3rd-party ownership in English football. With United Carlos won the Premiership twice and scored the opening penalty goal in the Champions League final win over Chelsea in 2008. In 2009 he was an unused substitute as United failed to defend their Champions League honours against Barcelona. Carlos later claimed that Ferguson's decision to drop him for the game was one of the reasons for the failure.

In June 2008 Carlos made a public statement that he would not be joining Manchester United on a permanent basis, being disheartened by the ill-treatment he had felt by the Manager Alex Ferguson and the Club. He also rejected an offer from Liverpool. It soon became clear that Manchester City was his preferred harbour, even though Chelsea was also trailing the player. On July 13th 2009 Carlos signed a 5 year deal with the Citizens as the club severed the ties to the private ownership that had made Carlos' life in the Premiership so disputed.

Playing Record:

Season:	Club:	LEA	LEG	FCA	FCG	LCA	LCG	ECA	ECG	TOA	TOG
2001-2004	Boca Juniors (ARG)	75	25	0	0	0	0	1	0	76	25
2005-2006	Corinthians (BRA)	53	31	0	0	0	0	0	0	53	31
2006-2007	West Ham United	26	7	1	0	0	0	2	0	29	7
2007-2009	Manchester United	63	19	5	3	6	6	23	6	97	34
2009-	Manchester City
Total:		217	82	6	3	6	6	26	6	255	97

LA = League Attendances. LG = League Goals.
FCA = FA Cup Attendances. FCG = FA Cup Goals.
LCA = League Cup Attendances. LCG = League Cup Goals.
ECA = European Cup Attendances. ECG = European Cup Goals.
TOA = Total Attendances. TOG = Total Goals