Football Star Carlos Tevez (Photo : Getty Images)
Shanghai Shenhua’s Carlos Tevez felt the anger and disappointment of Chinese football fans. The Argentinian striker was seen at Disneyland on the same day he did not play in an important game because of an injury.
Tevez is the world’s highest-paid football player with a salary of RMB 177.2 million annually from the time when he became a member of the Chinese team at the beginning of the year. He was spotted at Shanghai Disneyland on Saturday while his team is competing with another Chinese Super League club.
“We pay him tens of millions so that he can have a guided tour of Shanghai,” a disappointed netizen wrote on Hupu, a football website.
“I wonder if Shenhua paid his Disneyland expenses,” another fan wrote.
The football star has been undergoing treatment for a muscle injury since his last game.
According to Shanghai Shenhua spokesperson Ma Yue, there was no ground for Tevez to be penalized because he went to Disneyland in a “private capacity.”
Last Saturday’s game seemed unaffected by the South American’s absence as Shanghai Shenhua defeated Changchun Yatai with a 3-2 score.
Since he joined the Shanghai Shenhua team, Tevez has scored only once in four matches. The Chinese club is now in the 11th place in the Chinese premier league.
On the same day the issue on Tevez came out, another international football import by China was also involved in a controversy. Guangzhou Evergrande reproved its Brazilian midfielder Paulinho for endorsing a gambling company together with a porn star.
Gambling and casinos, as well as the trade of pornographic films, are against China’s laws.
Though Tevez was not sanctioned for visiting Disneyland, the negative comments from fans served as his punishment.
