From Buenos Aires to Upton Park: The Wild Story of Tevez and Mascherano

Tevez and Mascherano first dazzled on opposite sides of Buenos Aires: Tevez with Boca Juniors, Mascherano at River Plate. Though rivals domestically, they dovetailed superbly for the national side - Tevez the street-football striker, all scars, swagger and flair that any European club could dream of; Mascherano the relentless midfield terrier. In 2005, both swapped Argentina for Corinthians, the São Paulo giant bankrolled by mystery investment group MSI. But how did these two raw talents swap the streets of South America for the glamour of London?

Carlos Tevez (€14.6M) - Corinthians to West Ham United (2006) pic.twitter.com/9xSaAEKhcd

— Transfersthathappened (@actualtransfers) April 30, 2025

Buenos Aires Roots

Before diving into the drama that followed West Ham’s capture of Argentina’s hottest prospects, we need to rewind to early-2000s Buenos Aires to understand why the duo were dubbed as Argentina's next stars. Starting with the younger of the two, Carlos Tevez was raised in Fuerte Apache, which was a barrio notorious for crime and deprivation, and he was the archetypal street-football prodigy. A childhood accident left the burn scars that still snake across his neck and chest, but those marks marked who he was and it meant that his South American roots were already tied to him, whether he liked it or not. At Boca Juniors his raw agression combined with a No 10’s touch, managed to earn the nickname El Apache and hero-status in La Bombonera.

Carlos Tevez (aged 16-20) beginnings at Boca Juniors:

✅110 games
⚽️38 goals
🅰️23 assists

La Bombonera idol. Legend. El Apache. 🔵🟡 pic.twitter.com/XZ2hw8StF1

— Football Talent Scout - Jacek Kulig (@FTalentScout) June 5, 2021

Mascherano, a year younger and several districts away in Santa Fe province, was polishing a very different skill-set at River Plate. While Tevez thrived on chaos and eccentricity, Mascherano thrived on control and was a metronomic defensive midfielder with the timing of a surgeon and the bite of a terrier. They even dubbed him El Jefecito, Spanish for, “the little chief,” for the way he marshalled games far beyond his age.

Despite the Boca-River rivalry, their paths converged with Argentina’s youth side in early 2004 during the Olympics. There they claimed gold, each topping European scouting short-lists, yet instead of heading across the Atlantic, both accepted an audacious offer from Brazil’s Corinthians, bankrolled by an up-and-coming financier, Kia Joorabchian, and his company, Media Sports Investment (MSI).

Life in East London

On 31 August 2006, whispers roared around east London. West Ham, who were then managed by Alan Pardew and hardly a Champions League draw, announced the signings Tevez and Mascherano much to the surprise of everyone, with even senior Hammers admitting they had learned of the transfers only that morning. The explanation lay in MSI, which retained the players’ economic rights and viewed the Premier League as a lucrative shop window.

Oddly, the bigger coup faltered first. Mascherano found himself behind Hayden Mullins and Nigel Reo-Coker, starting just five league games, with then manager Alan Pardew later admitting the Argentine “hadn’t caught up with the pace” of the Premier League, and by January, a rescue call came from Rafael Benítez. Liverpool secured an 18-month deal, which was rubber-stamped by FIFA after the Premier League refused to clear yet another MSI-flavoured contract, where Mascherano flourished in a more successful side. Following that, within 18 months he was man-marking Kaka in a Champions League final, and then within four years he was repositioned as emergency centre-back at Barcelona, winning trebles under Pep Guardiola.

Warrior 👊

¡Felicidades! @Mascherano 🎉 pic.twitter.com/vD911kNBvA

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) June 8, 2023

Tevez’s trajectory was almost the mirror opposite. He took 19 appearances to score, finally bending a free-kick past Spurs and leaping into the Green Street crowd, bare-chested and roaring in Spanish. This kickstarted his career, where he throttled the relegation run-in with seven goals, three assists, and that famous solo strike at Old Trafford on the final day, beating Manchester United’s Edwin van der Sar to seal a 1-0 win. West Ham survived on 42 points; Sheffield United went down on 38 and immediately there was questions asked over the transfers and they quickly reached for their solicitors.

For West Ham, it was a punt worth taking - essentially it kept them in the Premier League. For the league’s lawyers, it was a ticking time-bomb.

The Drama Behind The Transfers

The problem for the hammers was, in plain and simple terms, they didn't actually own Tevez and Mascherano in a normal sense, their economic rights sat with the private investment vehicle, Media Sports Investment (MSI), who had funded the players’ previous move to Corinthians and retained contractual control over: where the players could play next, how much of any future transfer fee MSI would pocket, a right to remove the players mid-season if MSI wished to sell them on.

You might wonder what all the fuss was about. Under Premier League Rule U18, no contract can “allow any outside party to influence the club’s policies or the performance of its team.” In plain English - if someone who isn’t employed by the club can decide whether a player stays, goes, or even steps on the pitch, the rule has been broken.

So how did West Ham break these rules? When they submitted standard player-registration forms to the Premier League, they did not attach the side agreements that spelled out MSI’s powers. Those documents only surfaced when the league launched an investigation in early 2007, and so, regardless of the content, non-disclosure was itself a breach.

The fallout was seismic. Sheffield United, relegated while West Ham survived, were furious that the Hammers avoided a points deduction. They took the matter to arbitration and eventually pocketed around £20 million in compensation, with West Ham also being stung with a £5.5 million fine, which was the largest the Premier League had levied at that point, but kept their top-flight status. Furthermore, the controversy forced the league to tear up its rule book and within two years, all forms of third-party ownership were outlawed in England, and FIFA extended the ban worldwide in 2015.

The 2006 tale has clear echoes in Nottingham Forest’s recent strategy, with them too have scoured South America, Brazil in particular, for their next wave of talent. For the full story of how those transfers were put together, check out our in-depth article here.

📅 31/08/2006 📅 Who remembers @WestHamUtd's double swoop for Carlos Tevez and Javier @Mascherano? https://t.co/epbi0PpGDd #DeadlineDay pic.twitter.com/ux3nZbnJ8g

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) August 31, 2017