Carlos Tevez insists he doesn’t feel the pressure of wearing the Juventus number 10 shirt, and discusses his upbringing.
The forward inherited the shirt from Alessandro Del Piero when he arrived in Turin, and it has also been graced by the likes of Roberto Baggio and Michel Platini.
“Is it a pressure? I personally don’t feel that it is,” Tevez told fifa.com
Although it’s important to me, I don’t pile any additional pressure on myself when I pull on a shirt that so many Juve idols have worn before me.
Carlos Tevez insists he doesn’t feel the pressure of wearing the Juventus number 10 shirt, and discusses his upbringing.
The forward inherited the shirt from Alessandro Del Piero when he arrived in Turin, and it has also been graced by the likes of Roberto Baggio and Michel Platini.
“Is it a pressure? I personally don’t feel that it is,” Tevez told fifa.com
Although it’s important to me, I don’t pile any additional pressure on myself when I pull on a shirt that so many Juve idols have worn before me.
“From the start, I haven’t pressured myself to feel worthy of the No10 jersey. You’d just go mad and be unable to do your job properly otherwise.
“After spending eight years in Manchester I received a very warm welcome to Turin.
“The people are very easy-going, in contrast to other parts of Italy such as Rome or Naples, where passions run much higher.
“Life’s very good here and it’s where I’ve found it easiest to adapt. That’s also because of the language, which I understand a bit better. In England that was so hard for me.
“I’ve always missed friends and family, right from the start. Luckily I get plenty of visitors so I’m not always alone.
“My old mates have always been there for me no matter where I’ve been. Imagine my pals from Fuerte Apache in England!
“I have countless stories. Every time we went out something funny happened, usually involving the language. It’s always good fun.”
Fuerte Apache, where Tevez grew up, is a tough neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, and Tevez discusses his upbringing, remembering his former best friend Dario Coronel, another talented footballer who fell into crime and eventually commited suicide after a stand-off with police.
“It’s tough to make people understand what that life is like if they haven’t been through the same things as I or the other people from that neighbourhood have experienced.
“Therefore people can make of it what they want. You simply can’t get inside the heads of other people and say to them, 'Look, I went through some rough times’.
“It’s impossible to explain everything the streets taught me, and that was quite a lot.
“My whole childhood was hard, so it wasn’t a matter of any individual incident. I lived in a place where drugs and murder were part of everyday life.
“Experiencing difficult things, even as a very young kid, means you grow up quickly. I think that enables everyone to choose their own path and not just accept the one others have taken before you, and I went my own way.
“I never condoned drugs or murder, and luckily I was able to make a choice.
“Coronel? I don’t think you can say that he wasn’t lucky enough to be able to choose. As I’ve said already, everyone decides for themselves what they’re going to do.
“He had everything he needed to be just as successful [as me], but he chose a different path – criminality and drugs – and that ultimately meant that he is no longer with us.
“I truly believe that everyone chooses their own route through life, and he – and this has nothing to do with luck – chose the easier option.
“He is, or was, my best friend. We were together 24 hours a day, even though we later went to different clubs and things like that. But we were always together, all day long.
“People live in fear nowadays. Previously criminals had principles of sorts: they’d rob you but then they’d let you go. Now they’re all on drugs – you give them your belongings and they kill you anyway.
“Youngsters today no longer have the values I remember. In the past they would risk their necks by heading out, swiping something and then going home again – that was it.
“Today the lads who go stealing are all on drugs. They’re still taking a risk but in a different way. Now they’re only thinking about their own lives and not those of other people.
“We need to show people who think like this that there are good kids in Fuerte Apache and Ciudad Oculta too, just like in every Argentinian city. Not all people are bad.
“I got out of there and there are others who were able to escape that situation too. It’s not easy for anyone. In fact, it’s unbelievably difficult to get out of there.
“But everyone’s fate is in their own hands, as I always say. You have to prove to people that we’re not all the same.
“Did Fuerte Apache make me the player I am? I don’t know if there’s a connection there.
“I always say that whereas previously I played with the ball, now I play football, and that’s something different entirely. But I don’t know whether my circumstances have made me the kind of player I am. It’s possible.”