Tevez going all out for World Cup

CARLOS TEVEZ has been working with a nutritionist and personal trainer for the last year to ensure he reaches the World Cup in peak condition.

The striker has vowed to win a place in the starting 11 for Argentina’s opening game against Nigeria, even though coach Diego Maradona is still undecided about whether to play with two or three forwards for that game.

“I have been thinking about the World Cup ever since I left Manchester United,” said Tevez. “That’s when my World Cup started. I hired a nutritionist, because one of my biggest problems is my weight, as I have to be professional. This is a World Cup and you have to be responsible. You don’t play in one of these every day.

“I also hired a personal trainer, and in the last season I worked with Manchester City and also with him. Let’s see if all the suffering I went through will be worth it or not on the pitch. One thing’s true: I’m in better form today than I was for my first World Cup in 2006.”

Tevez started two games in Germany, against Holland and the team that knocked out Argentina, Germany, in the quarter-finals. He also came off the bench against Serbia-Montenegro and scored in the 6-0 win in the group stage. Tevez, who scored in Argentina’s 5-0 friendly win over Canada earlier this week, may benefit from Maradona’s latest change of heart.

After spending months promising to play a 4-4-2 system with Lionel Messi and Gonzalo Higuain up front, Maradona used a 4-3-3 against Canada, with Tevez playing well.

The coach is concerned about Nigeria’s defensive tactics in their Group B opener and has even toyed with the idea of playing three at the back, with Jonas Gutierrez and Maxi Rodriguez as wing-backs in a 3-4-3.

But he is also haunted by Argentina’s 1-0 defeat to Cameroon in the opening World Cup game of 1990, when the South Americans committed too many men up front and were hit on the counter-attack.

Either way, Tevez has declared himself fit and raring to go, in any position. “I want to play in the first game against Nigeria, but I know that (Lionel) Messi and (Gonzalo) Higuain are in great form,” he said. “I’ll do whatever the team needs me to do. If the team needs me near the box, then I’ll do it, or if they need me far away from the box, then I’ll play there.

“I do know that today I’m not in the starting line-up. It’s easy to explain, as I didn’t score 15 goals in the qualifiers. I had my chances in Argentina but I didn’t take them. So now I have to fight hard, and that’s the way it should be. I didn’t take my chances because I was not in good physical form and I had lots of injuries. I become stronger when I have to fight. That’s me.

“Argentina will not play any more friendly matches, so Diego is going to pick the team from what he sees in the training sessions. That’s where I will have to work hard and show my ability. We have the greatest forwards in the world but we have to show that in the World Cup.”