Former Manchester United and Juventus striker Carlos Tevez agreed a move back to boyhood club Boca Juniors on Friday after 12 months in Chinese football with Shanghai Shenhua, the Argentine team announced. “Tevez is coming home! He joined the team today and is already training with his teammates,” Boca said on its various social media accounts alongside a photo of the player working out in a gym. It will be the 33-year-old’s third spell at Boca Juniors.
He was pictured in the gym wearing a Boca team shirt although the club did not reveal the value of the transfer. Tevez had already negotiated what jersey he will wear at the Buenos Aires club — number 32.
Tevez joined Shenhua in January last year on an estimated 730,000 euros a week salary, making him one of the world’s highest-paid players. Tevez scored only four goals in the Chinese championship during an injury-marred season in which he missed the Chinese Cup Final which his team won. Tevez, who has often found it difficult to settle anywhere, saw his time in China unravel quickly. He arrived in Shanghai a year ago to a hero’s welcome and was touted as a symbol of football’s fast rise in the country. But he soon fell out of favour with Shenhua fans who questioned his fitness and commitment.
Everton sign Turkey
striker Cenk Tosun
Everton announced the signing of Turkey striker Cenk Tosun on a four-and-a-half-year deal worth a reported £27 mn ($37 mn, 30 mn euros) on Friday. The forward, who has scored 41 goals in 96 Turkish Super Lig games since the start of the 2014-15 season, said boss Sam Allardyce was a key factor in his decision to move to the Premier League.
Allardyce is excited to have landed the Besiktas player, who will boost his options up front, where they have been short since Romelu Lukaku left the club in the summer to join Manchester United. Tosun, 26, has scored eight goals for Turkey in 25 appearances.
Nouri’s family press Ajax
over brain damage
The family of Ajax midfielder Abdelhak Nouri, who suffered lasting brain damage after collapsing before a friendly in July, wants the club to clarify the level of support it will provide, Dutch media reported yesterday. At the request of the young footballer’s relatives, lawyer John Beer is investigating the circumstances of the incident. He said that he hopes “very soon” to be able to share “definitive findings”.
The 20-year-old midfielder, nicknamed “Appie”, collapsed suddenly because of a heart problem during the pre-match warmup before Ajax played German club Werder Bremen, in Austria. Questions remain over when cardiac resuscitation was first administered.
Television images suggest that it was “certainly not for at least the first five minutes” after the arrival of the club doctor on the scene. Nouri was hospitalised in intensive care in Innsbruck, Austria, before being transferred to a hospital in Amsterdam. He left intensive care at the end of July but remains in a “very low state of consciousness.” .
Brazilian Wendel signs
for Sporting Lisbon
Midfield prodigy Marcus Wendel joined Sporting Lisbon from Brazilian club Fluminense yesterday despite having been widely linked with Paris Saint-Germain.
The 20-year-old’s agent had said in December his client had agreed terms to join PSG, either immediately or after a season’s loan to a Portuguese club. However, Sporting said yesterday Wendel had signed a five-year deal with a buyout clause of 60mn euros.
Carlos Tevez trains with teammates after joining Boca Juniors in Buenos Aires on Friday. (AFP)
