Pictured: Carlos Tevez's Falklands War veteran uncle

The man behind Carlos Tevez’s REFUSAL to learn English: Tragedy of star’s Falklands War veteran uncle left the ex-Man City striker with a ‘cultural problem’ with the English

• Star decided upon arrival anyone wanting to speak to him should learn Spanish
• His Uncle Chito features prominently in a Netflix dramatisation about Tevez 

This is the Falklands war veteran former footballer Carlos Tevez says was behind his refusal to learn English during his seven years as a Premier League player.

In a radio interview the Argentine star said he decided early on after arriving in the UK anyone wanting to speak to him should learn Spanish and admitted to having a ‘cultural problem’ with the English.

Tevez claimed it was because a Falklands War call-up ruined his uncle’s own professional soccer dreams and led to him becoming an alcoholic.

MailOnline can today reveal his uncle, who Tevez didn’t name, is his Tio Chito which means Uncle Chito in English.

He was one of the brothers of the man Tevez called his father but was in reality an uncle who adopted him as his son after his real father was murdered in the violent Buenos Aires neighbourhood where he grew up.

Former football star Carlos Tevez (right) pictured with his Uncle Chito (left), who is said to be behind his refusal to learn English

Chito features prominently in a gritty 2019 Netflix dramatisation called Apache about the rise to stardom of the three-times South American Footballer of the Year, named after Fuerte Apache where Tevez lived as a child.

The Argentinian actor that plays Chito, Osqui Guzman, is filmed drinking beer the first time he appears in the series before almost coming to blows in a fight with another brother.

In another episode he gets past a police checkpoint after telling a suspicious officer at the roadblock as he tries to reach home that he served his country in the ten-week 1982 war with the UK as part of Platoon 112.

Tevez, born Carlos Alberto Martinez, has described his uncle as one of the ‘very important’ people in his life and visited him at his home in Fuerte Apache in August 2018 when he showed famous Argentinian TV presenter Susana Gimenez around the neighbourhood.

At the time Chito was described as the only one of the ex-footballer’s close relatives still living there.

Tevez’s uncle was unable to speak because he had just undergone a tracheotomy due to thyroid problems.

But the former Premier League star revealed then his uncle had played for Argentinian top-flight club River Plate before his military call-up and said of him: ‘This one’s got more lives than a cat.’

In a more recent interview, Tevez opened up on his uncle’s problems with alcohol as he revealed he once had to pay for two nose ops linked to his drink problems.

He recalled: ‘My uncle Chito was in the Falklands and finished up pretty affected.

‘One day in the neighbourhood someone broke his nose and it ended up all crooked.

Chito (right) was one of the brothers of the man Tevez called his father but was in reality an uncle who adopted him as his son after his real father was murdered in the violent Buenos Aires neighbourhood where he grew up

‘I went to visit him when I returned for a break while I was playing football in Brazil and saw he had his face all mashed up.

‘My uncle asked me to pay for an operation to fix his nose and I agreed and paid someone to do it.

‘It all went perfectly but the doctor told him to rest for 10 days when he came out with his nose bandaged up and black eyes from the op.

‘A week later on the Saturday he opens up a bottle of wine and ends up getting off his head.

‘The following day which is traditionally a football day in Argentina he was still drunk and agreed to be goalkeeper in a match with friends.

‘The first ball that came his way ended up smashing him in the nose while he tried to save it with his arms wide open.

‘I had to pay for another nose job for him. That ball in his face turned out pretty expensive for me.’

Speaking of his refusal to learn English after moving to the UK to play for West Ham, then Manchester United before moving to Manchester City, Tevez confessed: ‘I had a cultural problem with the English. I didn’t want to learn English, I wanted them to learn Spanish.

‘I have an uncle who played in River Plate. He’s the only River supporter in my family.

‘He played in the reserve team and when he was going to make his debut with the first team, he got called up to fight in the Falklands War.

‘He suffered after that and became an alcoholic. That marked me a lot because he was very close to me.’

Opening up on his feelings about England, he added: ‘The seven years I spent in England were: ‘Okay, I’m here for work but I’m not getting used to English culture. Everything has a reason. Very few people know this story but today I can tell it.

‘You want to speak to me. Then you learn Spanish, because I’m not going to learn English.’

His surprise admission followed comments he made on Argentinian TV when he was still captain at Manchester City in June 2011 when he moaned he couldn’t wait to leave Manchester for good and claimed the city had ‘nothing’.

Tevez enjoyed a successful career in English football, despite not learning the language, starring for West Ham, Manchester United and Manchester City (pictured)

Tevez, who resigned as manager of top-flight Argentinian side Rosario Central late last year, famously escaped punishment for a serious motoring offence in England in September 2011 because his English was so poor.

And former teammate and fellow Argentinian Pablo Zabaleta chastised the striker while they were both at Manchester City for failing to learn English.

The ex-footballer’s drunken uncle appeared to be referenced in an article published in respected Argentinian daily Clarin after the February 2021 death due to coronavirus complications of Segundo Tevez, who raised Carlos as his son with his surname.

The feature piece, describing a moment said to have marked the young boy who would go on to make millions from his career on the pitch, said ‘Fuerte Apache. Greater Buenos Aires, an afternoon in the nineties.

‘Segundo Tevez and Carlos Alberto Martinez walk through the streets of the neighbourhood.

‘The context is always the same. Unpainted monoblocks, workers walking to take the bus, cars in scrap yards, youths smoking joints on street corners and drunks here and there.

‘Segundo recognises his brother, the way he is everyday, drunk, drugged, sleeping on the table at the bar where he always is.

‘He takes Carlos’s hand, stops and makes his son do the same.

‘You see! If you don’t work, you don’t study and you don’t play football, you could end up like him. Is that what you want for your life?

‘With effort you’re going to be able to achieve something’ he tells him.

‘That example marked Carlos for life.’

The actor who played Chito in the Netflix series, hinting he had managed to turn his life round in recent years, described him as a ‘person with a giant heart and a lot of love for his family’ in a recent interview.

He said: ‘He’s alive and I got to meet him and talk with him, and getting together with him was what I liked the best.

‘We had a very deep conversation about his interests and the way he lived, about what he’d been through, how he felt and how he turned his life around.’

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