Following his winning goal for Boca Juniors against SC Internacional in the Copa Libertadores, Carlos Tevez took off his shirt to reveal the club shirt from 1981, which he revealed after the game was given to him by Maradona who died last Wednesday.
Carlos Tevez was one of the many young stars over the years to be touted as ‘the next Maradona' early in his career. An unfair comparison that no player will ever live up to – there is and will only ever be one Maradona. But the pair did share a special kinship through allegiances to both club and country, with Maradona taking on something of a mentor role for Tevez. And the former United and City striker paid tribute to the icon after he passed away last week.
Scoring the only goal of the day, Tevez reeled away and pulled off his shirt to reveal the 1981 Boca Juniors shirt that Maradona himself wore in his first stint with Xeneizes. Coincidently, that shirt – within which El Pibe de Oro won a league title before his move to Barcelona – is the one the current Boca shirt design is based on.
“It was a small tribute to Diego with a shirt that he gave me from '81," Tevez said after the match. “I'm very happy to have given him that happiness that surely he'll have seen from above.”
Tevez’s tribute followed Lionel Messi's touching gesture of revealing Maradona's Newell’s Old Boys jersey under his own during Barcelona's game with Osasuna following his goal. Messi is another player that was often compared to Maradona in his earlier career, but he has since grown into his own mould as one of the greatest of all-time, taking a position alongside Diego rather than in his shadow. But the impact that Maradona had on football and in particular on Argentine football, is evident, and it will live on for a long time to come yet.
See more iconic pictures of Maradona here.
