Wantaway Tevez poised to end miserable China spell

It would allow the forward to seal a rumoured return to Boca Juniors, the club he left to join Shenhua in January 2017 on an estimated 730,000 euros a week, some of the highest wages in football.

A Shenhua spokesman told AFP on Friday that the club were in discussions with the former Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus striker to end his contract.

The spokesman declined to give further details, but Tevez is thought to be on a two-year deal.

The 33-year-old scored just four times in the Chinese Super League (CSL), missed half the matches injured or out of shape and was a notable absentee when Shenhua won the FA Cup in November.

Tevez was not in the squad for either leg of the cup final against Shanghai SIPG and flew back to Argentina just as his side lifted the trophy.

Tevez, who has often found it difficult to settle anywhere, saw his time in China unravel quickly.

He arrived in Shanghai a year ago to a hero’s welcome and was touted as a symbol of football’s fast rise in the country.

But he soon fell out of favour with Shenhua fans who questioned his fitness and commitment.

He earned the unflattering nickname “Very Homesick Boy”, a nod to past antics of jetting home to Argentina in times of strife, and he was accused of being overweight when new coach Wu Jingui took over at struggling Shenhua in September.

Wu later said that Tevez was working hard of his own volition to get fit and shed the bulk, but that did nothing to earn him a recall for the FA Cup final.

Tevez has been strongly linked by Argentine media with a return to Boca, where he made his name early in his career in his first stint at the club.