Carlos Tevez is lining up a retirement match for next December, and the names at the top of his wish list are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The idea, first raised in a press report, is that the two could line up on the same team in what would be a rare twist in the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry.
What makes the proposal matter now is the scale of it. Tevez wants to invite around 60 former teammates, including players he shared dressing rooms with at West Ham, Manchester City, Manchester United, Juventus, Boca Juniors and the Argentina national team. For a farewell built around one man, the invitation list alone turns it into something much bigger than a testimonial.
Tevez retired from professional football in June 2022 after a career that brought 11 titles, 94 goals and 279 matches. Since then he has coached Rosario Central, Independiente and Talleres Córdoba, but the focus has now returned to the forward’s playing days and to the possibility of one more night in front of his own supporters. The match is being discussed for The Bombonera, which gives the event a setting that fits the scale of the names involved.
There is still a practical obstacle. The Bombonera looks set to open its doors on the weekend of 12 and 13 December, or 18 and 19 December, with the timing meant to avoid the end of the Argentine professional league. But Boca Juniors may play on those dates, and if that happens there would be no room for Tevez’s farewell match. That leaves the calendar, not the invitation list, as the first thing that has to be settled.
For now, the most striking part is not whether Messi and Ronaldo would share a dressing room, but whether the dates can be cleared in time for Tevez to make the ask. If Boca Juniors can free the stage, the next question is whether football’s two defining figures of a generation would actually say yes.
