Buenos Aires – Carlos Tevez has abandoned any hope of returning to international duty with Argentina and says he almost turned his back on football entirely before joining Juventus in June.
In a television interview with ESPN's Latin American network, Tevez said that his time with Argentina, who look certain to grab an automatic qualifying berth for the World Cup in Brazil next year, is “in the past.”
“It's over, I've said what I have to say on the national team and I have nothing more to add,” said the 29-year-old, who has not played for his country since Alejandro Sabello was appointed coach two years ago.
“I have spoken the truth, I have said what I feel and that's the end. If I talk about this, it seems I'm asking for a chance to come back.”
Tevez had a controversial four years with Manchester City, which included a public spat with former manager Roberto Mancini in September 2011 when he refused to warm up as a substitute during a Champions League match against Bayern Munich.
“I always said I would retire at 28 and I was close to retiring after the fight with Roberto,” said Tevez, who also played for Manchester United and West Ham United during his stint in England.
“I was tired as well. I spent six years in England and nobody would have given a cent for me to stay six years in England.
“I won the Champions League with United, the Premier League with United, the FA Cup with City, who hadn't won anything for a long time, I won everything.”
The spotlight, whether positive or negative, was never far from the 29-year-old in England and despite all his success he found himself struggling at times.
“There's a moment where you get tired, you get tired of football. I wanted to leave football, then Juventus arrived, one of the biggest teams in Europe.” – Reuters
*If you use Gmail to read IOL's newsletters, note that Google is rolling out a new tabbed inbox that filters your mail into 5 separate tabs - Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. IOL emails will probably be sent to the "Promotions" tab instead of the "Primary" tab. If you don't want it that way, drag the newsletter from the Promotions tab to the Primary tab. An alert will pop up. Click "yes" and your newsletters will continue to go to your Primary inbox.