IT’S something we talk about lots in Argentina,” says Carlos Tevez. “Desire. Your ‘hambre de gloria’, which means, literally, ‘hunger for glory’. I was brought up with this. It never goes away.”

Hunger for glory fuelled Tevez to fight his way out of Fuerte Apache, one of the world’s most dangerous slums. It coursed in the teenage whirlwind whose sheer competitiveness, in a friendly, was unforgettable upon his first appearance in England, for Boca Juniors against Manchester United in 2002. It, more than a technical gift, is the essence of why he’s among the most expensive footballers in history. Any team with Tevez has hambre. And a team with hambre always has a chance.

It’s the lifeblood of many Argentine players — “we have