Monday 13 April 2015 20:10, UK
As Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov renew their rivalry in the Champions League, Adam Bate examines the perception and the reality of their respective reputations? Which man didn’t put the effort in during training? Who learnt to play with a ball found in a skip? The answers might surprise…
“He wasn’t blessed with great pace and wasn’t a great trainer. He would always like a wee break, saying his calf was sore. In the context of the way we prepared, that sometimes annoyed us. We wanted to see a genuine desire to train all the time. Top players have that.”
As Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov prepare to face each other in a Champions League quarter final on Tuesday in Turin, this quote from Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography feels apposite. Most would surely assume that of the two former Manchester United forwards, the description applies to the languid Berbatov. Instead, this was Ferguson’s assessment of Tevez’s efforts at Old Trafford.
It serves to highlight the point that when it comes to Berbatov and Tevez, the perception is not always helpful. Reality is more nuanced, lines are blurred and the picture that emerges is of two players even more fascinating than the admittedly seductive caricatures would have people believe.
Comparisons have been made between them since at least the summer of 2008 when United paid £30million to Tottenham in order to add the Bulgarian to a forward line that had just conquered Europe, spiriting him away from the clutches of Manchester City in the process. United had Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney but Ferguson was after something extra.
“Watching Dimitar at Tottenham, I felt he would make a difference because he had a certain composure and awareness that we lacked among our group of strikers,” said the United boss. “He displayed the ability of Cantona or Teddy Sheringham - not lightning quick, but he could lift his head and make a creative pass. I thought he could bring us up a level and extend our range of talents.”
The following summer it was Tevez moving across Manchester in an acrimonious switch. The two players went on to share the Premier League golden boot award in the 2010/11 season with 20 goals apiece – a coincidence unlikely to have been lost on either man. In a 2009 interview with Argentina’s TyC Sports television network, Tevez had even singled out Berbatov as the reason for his exit.
Tevez frustration
“I did not feel supported after they signed Berbatov, because I was the man for the job he was bought to do,” said Tevez. “Last year I was the second top scorer after Cristiano. We won two titles and being shut out like this was something that I could not understand. Ferguson told me not to be worried about Berbatov's arrival, but I did not like it when he started to put me on the bench often.”
Ferguson later admitted he had made an error of judgement. Wowed by Berbatov’s capacity for brilliance, he’d indulged himself in some fantasy football. “It was a mistake on my part, in the sense that Berbatov was a player I fancied strongly and I wanted to see him succeed. But he is also the sort who wants to be assured he is a great player. The conundrum with him and Tevez was always there.”
Berbatov certainly won the battle in their only season together, scoring nine Premier League goals to Tevez’s five with a superior minutes-per-goal ratio. There were also 10 assists to Tevez’s three, placing Berbatov second in England for quantity and surely top when it came to quality given his sumptuous setup for Ronaldo against West Ham as he turned away from his marker on the by-line.
Divided opinion
But it was far from a total triumph. A lackadaisical first penalty in the shootout set the tone for an FA Cup semi-final defeat to Everton and Berbatov was not trusted to start the Champions League final defeat to Barcelona, introduced off the bench after Tevez. Indeed, such was the contrast with his team-mate's harum-scarum approach that the pair divided opinion. Were you a Berbatov fan or a Tevez fan?
Indeed, as is the polarising nature of frenzied debate, Berbatov has been variously depicted as either a genius or a wastrel, Tevez as either a limited trier or a visceral thrill. Artist or artisan? Inspiration or perspiration? The man who could play in his slippers and smoking jacket or the archetypal Argentine ‘pibe’ scrapping away to succeed? They are caricatures that do neither man much credit.
Tevez continues to make a mockery of it in showing quality and imagination at Juventus. From his superb solo effort against Parma to his cheeky second against Verona, Tevez’s quality in front of goal has been consistently high and he is the current Serie A top scorer with 17 goals. The Argentine also scored three of Juve’s five goals in their demolition of Dortmund last month.
Furthermore, trite observations about Berbatov’s suitability to life on the yachts of Monaco do not stand up to scrutiny. In truth, he grew up in abject poverty. Former Bayer Leverkusen team-mate Lucio has even spoken of how Berbatov was “so poor as a kid in Bulgaria that he grew up playing football with a basketball he found in a skip”.
Appearances can be deceptive. “Sometimes the things I do look effortless but it’s not like that,” says Berbatov, and it seems clear that assuming someone has inner confidence because they can trap a ball in an instant requires flawed logic. Ferguson admitted that “Berbatov was surprisingly lacking in self-assurance”.
That seems to be something shared by Tevez, another apparently in need of that feeling of being the main man. His form ebbed away once Berbatov arrived and Ferguson believes he was ill-suited to a bit-part role. “The reason, I think, was that he’s the type of animal that needs to play all the time. If you’re not training intensively, which he wasn’t, you need to play regularly.”
This Champions League quarter-final pits the two against each other once more and there is at least now a sense that both are content. Tevez has found success at Juventus playing alongside a young striker in Alvaro Morata who admits it’s a “dream come true” to be partnering the Argentine, while Berbatov’s foibles are permitted and indulged in an otherwise functional Monaco side.
So which of the two players will emerge as the key figure over the two legs? Whatever the outcome, it seems likely that whoever seizes the moment will be held up as definitive proof of not just their own individual qualities but the merits of an entire way of approaching the game. And yet, the complex truth is even more fascinating than the fiction.
Watch Juventus v Monaco live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 7.40pm on Tuesday