Man City strip Tevez of captaincy

Man City strip Tevez of captaincy

Published Sep. 10, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

Manchester City has stripped Carlos Tevez of the captaincy following his high-profile attempts to leave the club, with Vincent Kompany handed the armband.

Tevez lifted City's first trophy in 35 years after victory in the FA Cup final over Stoke in May.

But the Argentina forward rocked the club during the offseason by expressing a desire to move closer to his family in South America.

After a proposed move to Brazilian club Corinthians collapsed and no other clubs made firm offers, Tevez was forced to return to City.

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''The captain is Vinny Kompany,'' City manager Roberto Mancini said. ''The reason is simple. Carlos in the summer wanted to leave the club for family reasons.

''I respected his opinion to leave the club, but Carlos is here now, we didn't find any solution for him. He is a fantastic player for us because he can score 20 goals in one year, but I decided in the summer Vinny was the captain.''

The 27-year-old Tevez has been City's top scorer for the past two seasons but will make his first start of the new campaign on Saturday against Wigan after failing to make the first 11 in the opening three matches.

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