The Argentinian striker touched down in the country’s capital on Thursday for the start of his stint with Shanghai Shenhua, where he’ll reportedly take home £615,000 a week – a record salary for a footballer.
Hundreds of fans turned up to greet him after his switch from hometown club Boca Juniors. Many wore the colours of the Argentina national team, which the 32-year-old last represented in October 2015.
Tevez will work under manager Gus Poyet in Hongkou District, and will count Fredy Guarin and Obafemi Martins among his teammates.
The crowd chanted “Carlos! Carlos!” as he made his way through the airport terminal, according to BBC Sport.
The former Boca Juniors, West Ham United, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Juventus man is set to begin the Chinese Super League season in March.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang says he’ll “100 percent” stay at Borussia Dortmund beyond the current transfer window, but if his exit is engineered shortly after then, it wouldn’t necessarily be to Real Madrid – the outfit he’s dubbed his “dream club.”
“Yes, yes. That’s true but, you know, there is not only Real Madrid in this world,” he told football daily Bild, with translation from ESPN FC’s Stephan Uersfeld.
Aubameyang’s devastating pace and ferocious strike rate up top for Dortmund have unsurprisingly attracted a legion of admirers, with Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain apparently eyeing the Gabon international, and, after four seasons at the Westfalenstadion, he could be open to offers.
“Nobody can foresee the future,” the 27-year-old said. “I love it at Dortmund, but I can’t say that I’ll stay for two more years, or five or 10. It’s possible that a club could reach an agreement with Dortmund in June and I’ll go.”
The 27-year-old has taken his goal-scoring form to the Africa Cup of Nations, scoring in each of Gabon’s group bouts on home soil so far, after already recording 16 strikes across 15 Bundesliga appearances this term.
Aubameyang responded to reports that Real Madrid’s manager, Zinedine Zidane, is seeking a different kind of player to him at the Santiago Bernabeu by supplementing his claims that he’s not clinging on hopes of moving to the Spanish capital.
“I don’t know if that’s true but, also, I am not interested in it,” he declared. “If Real want me, they will call me one day and, if not, no problem. I live my life and am optimistic about the future.”
He additionally played down any talk of him reuniting with his former Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool and, to the delight of a BVB support that has seen its squad continually gutted by Bayern Munich in recent seasons, a shift to Bavaria is completely out of the question.
“I would never join Bayern,” he said. “That’s for sure. That would be too hard on the Dortmund fans. Whatever they’d offer me, I’d say no.”
As the whole world watches, Chapecoense continues to pick up the pieces and rebuild.
On Saturday, exactly 54 days after a plane crash killed most of Chapecoense’s squad, the Verdao played its first fixture since the tragedy, drawing Palmeiras 2-2 in a friendly at Arena Conda.
Of the 26 players named to Chapecoense’s squad, 22 were new faces, while the four others were footballers from last year’s squad who fortunately didn’t board LaMia Flight 2933. To fill the spots in the Verdao’s first team, footballers were brought in from other clubs and promoted from the youth team.
Before the friendly kicked off, the three players to survive the plane crash took the pitch and, in an emotional scene, lifted the Copa Sudamericana trophy. It was en route to the first leg of the final in Medellin, Colombia that the tragedy unfolded, and Atletico Nacional requested to CONMEBOL that Chapecoense be crowned champion of the tournament. South American football’s governing body obliged.
Neto is miraculously walking without crutches, Alan Ruschel required spine surgery, and Jackson Follman had part of his right leg amputated. The plane crash claimed the lives of 71 people, including 19 members of Chapecoense’s squad and 20 journalists joining the club for what was set to be the biggest match in its 43-year history.
Once the friendly got underway, Palmeiras, joined by a substantial number of travelling supporters, opened the scoring in the 11th minute. However, three minutes later, Chapecoense equalised, as Grolli scored the Verdao’s first goal since the plane crash, giving the club and its fans something to celebrate for the first time since Nov. 28.
In the second half, it took Chapecoense all of 58 seconds to go ahead. Amaral, who coincidentally joined the Verdao on loan from Palmeiras, got his head to a cross and put another smile on the faces of supporters at Arena Conda.
Palmeiras produced an equaliser before the final whistle, but the most notable occurrence from the second half came in 71st minute, when the friendly was stopped so both teams and supporters could honour the 71 victims of the plane crash.
Chapecoense’s first competitive fixture is scheduled for Thursday, when the Verdao will take on Joinville in Santa Catarina, Brazil’s state championship.