Retro Carlos Tevez Shirt – The Apache From Fuerte Apache

Carlos Tevez burst into Argentine football with Boca Juniors, where between 2001 and 2004 he established himself as the new heir to the maverick Argentine striker tradition. He won the Copa Libertadores in 2003 and the Intercontinental Cup against Milan, earning the nickname El Apache and three consecutive South American Footballer of the Year awards. A move to Corinthians in Brazil followed, where he silenced sceptics by winning the Brazilian Série A in 2005 and being voted the league's best player. The summer of 2006 brought one of football's strangest sagas: Tevez and Javier Mascherano arrived at unfashionable West Ham United in deals shrouded in third-party ownership controversy. With the Hammers staring at relegation, Tevez delivered a final-day winner at Manchester United that kept West Ham up – an irony that defined his career. He then joined Manchester United, winning two Premier League titles and the 2008 Champions League in Moscow before crossing the most toxic divide in English football to Manchester City. There, he became captain, fired City to their first FA Cup in 35 years and the historic 2011-12 Premier League title, while also feuding spectacularly with Roberto Mancini in Munich. Juventus came next, and Tevez won back-to-back Serie A crowns and reached the 2015 Champions League final. He returned to Boca a hero, played a brief and lucrative spell in China with Shanghai Shenhua, and finally retired having won league titles in Argentina, Brazil, England and Italy – a record matched by very few. With Argentina he won Olympic gold in 2004 and reached the Copa América final in 2004, 2007 and 2015.

Tevez's career was shaped by an extraordinary cast of teammates, managers and rivals. At Boca, he learned under Carlos Bianchi alongside Rolando Schiavi and Guillermo Barros Schelotto. At West Ham, his partnership with fellow Argentine Javier Mascherano under Alan Pardew and later Alan Curbishley remains one of the Premier League's most surreal subplots. At Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson built a fearsome forward line with Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney – the trio that conquered Europe in 2008. His decision to leave for Manchester City, where he linked up with Sergio Agüero, David Silva and Yaya Touré under Roberto Mancini, made him a hated figure in red half of Manchester. The famous 'Welcome to Manchester' billboard summed up the venom. At Juventus, he formed a thrilling partnership with Andrea Pirlo, Paul Pogba and Álvaro Morata under Antonio Conte and then Massimiliano Allegri. With Argentina he played alongside Lionel Messi, Juan Román Riquelme and Gabriel Heinze, while his rivalry with Diego Forlán and his complicated relationship with Diego Maradona, who managed him at the 2010 World Cup, only added to the legend.

A retro Carlos Tevez shirt collection tells the story of football in the 2000s and 2010s through some of its most iconic kits. The yellow-and-blue Boca Juniors shirt with the famous horizontal band, worn during the 2003 Libertadores triumph, is the holy grail for many collectors – particularly the Nike version with the Pepsi sponsor. His 2006-07 West Ham claret-and-blue shirt, sponsored by JobServe and made by Reebok, is forever associated with that escape-from-relegation goal at Old Trafford. The Manchester United AIG-sponsored Nike shirts of 2007-08 and 2008-09, especially the 50th-anniversary Champions League home shirt from Moscow, command premium prices. His Manchester City Umbro shirts with the Etihad sponsor – particularly the 2010-11 FA Cup-winning kit and the 2011-12 title-winning shirt – are among the most coveted modern City retros. Then come the unmistakable Juventus Nike home shirts from 2013-14 and 2014-15 with the Jeep sponsor, worn during back-to-back Scudetti. Each shirt with 'Tevez' and the number 32, 9, 10 or 11 across the back is a portable piece of football history.