Football
ESPN staff 7y

Boca Juniors target summer Shanghai Shenhua buy-back for Carlos Tevez

Boca Juniors president Daniel Angelici has said he will travel to China in August to negotiate a buy-back for Shanghai Shenhua player Carlos Tevez.

The former Manchester United and Manchester City striker returned to his boyhood club in July of 2015 after two seasons at Juventus, but said that the pressures of playing for Boca were too great and left for the Chinese Super League club last December for what was initially said to be a world-high contract.

Now, his commitment to Shenhua is being questioned just five games into the season after he sat out the weekend with a calf injury against Changchun Yatai but was seen striding through Shanghai's Disneyland.

"For me personally, I would like to have Tevez back, even just one leg of him. He is a great player and I have great admiration and affection for him," Angelici told ESPN FC in Argentina. "I have scheduled a trip to China for August and while I am there I plan to see him and visit with his family. We will have a talk."

Shanghai Shenhua paid a £9 million ($11m) transfer fee to get the 33-year-old, and while it was initially said he would be paid a world-high of £615,000 ($760,632) a week to make the move, reports in China later said it was significantly less.

The total deal over two years is reported to be £32.5m ($40m) including the transfer fee, which works out at £226,000 per week and that would place Tevez significantly behind the reported salaries for Cristiano Ronaldo (£288,000 after tax) and Lionel Messi (£256,000 after tax).

Boca would also have to refund 60 percent of the transfer fee should Tevez leave Shanghai Shenhua after one year.

"I know that he left only recently and I am familiar with the type of deal he signed," Angelici said. "I am convinced that in August we can begin to speak. But I am also aware that these are very personal decisions for him and his family and we must respect that. My obligation as the leader of the club is to work hard so that he may return."

Shenhua, who are coached by former Chelsea and Tottenham midfielder Gus Poyet, sit ninth in the overall Chinese Super League table after five matches and beat Changchun on Saturday, 3-2.

Angelici said that Boca's mission is to win Copa Libertadores in 2018 and that the club would spend big.

"I am not going to get into a debate as to whether we should have [Ricardo] Centurion or Tevez," Angelici said of Centurion, who is at Boca on loan from Brazilian club Sao Paulo as a left winger.

"We could have the both of them and still go out and seek top players. Our goal next year is to win Copa Libertadores.

"I don't want to talk about numbers. I was asked about that in the last interview and that is where [the media] got that comparison with Centurion [and Tevez], because I was interrogated about how much the club would have to pay for a Tevez buy-back from Shanghai and I said that it would be more or less the same amount of money as the option to buy out Centurion's contract [from Sao Paolo].

"Maybe I needed to clarify that we have enough funds for them both. I am not going to choose between one or the other."

Angelici reiterated that he would like to see Tevez finish his career at the venerable Argentina club.

"The day that he decides to retire I would like to have him by my side at our club, even in an ambassador's role," he said. "I would love for him to represent our club throughout the world.

"As a matter of fact, I am not travelling to China just to speak with him. I am going because I had a marketing trip planned on behalf of the club. But you can be sure that I will have lunch with him at some point."

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