Tevez reveals joining Manchester City was revenge on Manchester United for broken promise

Carlos Tevez has revealed that a sense of betrayal by Manchester United drove him to sign for rivals Manchester City in the summer of 2009, telling former United defender Rio Ferdinand that the move was essentially an act of revenge.

The Argentine, now 42, spent two years on loan at Old Trafford after joining from West Ham United, scoring 34 goals in 99 appearances and winning the Premier League and Champions League. Despite that success, his playing time diminished in the second season, and the permanent deal he believed had been promised to him never materialised.

Speaking on the Rio Ferdinand Presents channel, Tevez described a conversation with Sir Alex Ferguson in which the United manager appeared to guarantee his future at the club. “Fergie told me, ‘Carlos, I’m going to pay out your contract and you’re going to stay in Manchester’,” Tevez recalled. “He said ‘I’m going to pay for Berbatov but don’t worry, I’m going to buy you the thing and we’ll do your contract’.”

When that commitment went unfulfilled, Tevez felt the relationship had been broken. “I felt like I’d given my heart to United. And I didn’t feel the same,” he said. “If you remember, we won the Champions League. We won the league and then, to bring down my price, they brought in a player.”

Asked by Ferdinand which club he preferred, Tevez was candid. “I had a great time at United,” he said. “The other team — City — for me, was like a revenge. I didn’t get back what I gave.”

Tevez went on to score 73 goals in 148 games across four seasons at City, becoming one of the most important players in the club’s rise to prominence. The two-year loan arrangement that brought him to United from West Ham was itself a rarity in football and was ultimately prohibited by FIFA in 2022.

The admission adds a striking personal dimension to one of the most consequential transfers in the history of the Manchester derby, with Tevez’s goals helping City win their first league title in 44 years in 2012.