Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano at career peaks for Upton Park return

Eight years after arriving at West Ham in a knotty transfer arrangement the two players team up again in England having forged memorable journeys in European football.

 
 Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano pose for photographers upon arriving at Upton Park in 2006.

       They were 22 years old as they embarked on their first season of European professional football following their World Cup debut. Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano took the football world by surprise when they signed for West Ham in 2006 in a confusing transfer that would – over the following years – shed light on the way third party ownerships operated and lead to new regulations in the UK.
On Wednesday, for Argentina’s friendly with Croatia, they will both set foot on Upton Park once again as team-mates, eight years after that first arrival and with two extraordinary journeys under their belt.
       The element of nostalgia is certainly more anchored around Tevez, who will be sporting the national strip for the first time in three years (or “more than 1,230 days” as one Argentinian paper put it). Back home his involvement has been clamoured for by those still lamenting that, perhaps, with him on the pitch, the recent World Cup Final against Germany might have turned out differently; that what Argentina needed more than anything was someone with the hunger, the fighting spirit, the relentless pursuit and the finishing clout of the man they call “The Apache” and “the people’s player”.
       Tevez’s exclusion from the World Cup squad was controversial, provoking protest marches and wall paintings in Buenos Aires. Speculation as to what motivated it ranged from a suggested clash with Lionel Messi to the coach Alejandro Sabella’s desire to keep a potential media circus at bay. Yet it was probably due to a combination of many factors, including Tevez’s poor performance on the pitch during the last Copa América and his tendency to speak his mind even when at odds with the official line.
      However, his superlative season with Juventus in the run-up to the World Cup – a feat he appears to be sustaining this season – highlighted the fact that among the millions of armchair managers in his homeland, more than a few would have considered including him in the final squad list.
When the current manager, Gerardo “El Tata” Martino, announced his recall for these two friendlies, the story dominated the Buenos Aires agenda. It coincided with Sabella’s first public exchange with the press since the World Cup and reportedly the only time Sabella revealed annoyance was when under fire with repeated questioning over Tevez’s absence.
As Tevez arrived at the squad hotel in the East End late on Sunday night, fresh from scoring a Maradonian solo run in Italy, he addressed a posse of pressmen from his country with a distinctive tone of gratitude and humility.
       Praise for Messi, acknowledgment that representing his country is an honour, and a mea culpa of sorts : “I’m not a boludo [Argentinian slang for idiot] … one knows when it’s not the right time”.
Mascherano, by contrast, comes as the veteran, visionary hero of Argentina’s World Cup campaign. He led Argentina to play all seven possible matches as if he had absorbed Tevez’s hunger and determination – a desire rarely so visible. Following one tackle on Holland’s Arjen Robben he declared he had “tore his anus”, and in spite of his team-mates giggling like schoolboys, everyone could actually see what he meant. His honesty, his tears and his leadership made him the darling of Argentina – pragmatic, cerebral and as far removed from controversy as is possible.
Both men are 30 now and perhaps unlikely to appear in another World Cup but they are crucial emblematic figures of the current generation and very probably key to the shape of the squad for the upcoming Copa América.

Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano posing with their West Ham shirts at their unveiling by the club in September 2006.

    If their paths from their first arrival eight years ago were plotted as line graphs they would yield interestingly contrasting shapes: Mascherano’s dipped early on but before the end of the season he had moved on to Liverpool where his steady rise commenced, still on the up as he looks forward to a further four years with Barcelona. Meanwhile Tevez, the more volatile of the two, has seen steeper troughs and dips. Single-handedly saving West ham from relegation that first season, he went from strength to strength as he joined Manchester United and then hit a deep low when the Manchester City experience soured. His current phoenix-like resurgence with Juventus marks a clear high point.
Argentina’s manager when the pair first landed in England, Alfio Basile, agitated matters somewhat by declaring he was worried by the two youngsters who “seemed lost” in West Ham. Though he was arguably proved right in the short term, at the time both players vehemently stuck by their move.
Mascherano said he “hoped to be here for a very long time” and Tevez claimed relief that he could “walk in the parks freely instead of having to jump into limos all the time” as he was doing in São Paulo. Both praised the English game; Tevez mentioned the challenge for him as he would not be able to hold on to the ball so much, and therefore would have to be faster both mentally and physically. It was a very tough introduction to the European stage but welcomed by many fans, some of whom saw it as livening up the Premiership.
        Back then the two Argentinians were the only players from the country based in the Premiership when a commercially minded friendly against Brazil was staged in the then new Emirates Stadium: “It’s tango meets samba on a rock’n’roll stage” was the selling line at the time. Tomorrow Argentina face Croatia with seven players currently employed in the Premier League but Tevez and Mascherano are not among them. These two consummate professionals have long since moved on.