Speaking in a relaxed conversation relayed by Mundo Deportivo, the former Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus forward was asked whether he had ever come close to joining Real Madrid. His answer was unequivocal.
"I was close, I was close when I went from United to City."
Tévez then described an operation that went far beyond informal interest.
"It's incredible, the story is incredible, it's long, very long. Imagine if I'd added Real Madrid: United, City, Boca..."
According to Tévez, the deal had progressed to the point of a signed contract.
"We had signed the contract and we had to leave it with a notary, imagine that. That is being very close, that is being too close."
He described receiving a personal welcome from the club's president at the time.
"I spoke with the president and he told me, 'Welcome to the White House.'"
Tévez identified the president as Ramón Calderón, who led Real Madrid between 2006 and 2009, and named Pedja Mijatović — then the club's sporting director — as the other key figure in the negotiation.
"I spoke to Calderón at three in the morning. We had finished everything with Mijatović."
He recalled the specific circumstances of the agreement being finalised.
"We were at home having dinner, we closed the contract. It was two in the morning, after a United match, I remember."
The plan, according to Tévez, was to keep the agreement secret and present it formally at a later date.
"We couldn't say anything. We signed the contract, left it with the notary to be presented after the season."
That plan never came to fruition. Calderón's presidency collapsed amid a vote of no confidence in early 2009, and his eventual successor changed everything.
"They threw Calderón out, contract out, everyone out. Florentino Pérez came and changed everything."
Tévez went on to leave Manchester United for Manchester City later that year in one of the most contentious transfers in Manchester football history, before later moves to Juventus and a return to Boca Juniors. Pérez's return to the Real Madrid presidency in 2009 ushered in the Galácticos era that brought Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso to the Bernabéu — and, by Tévez's account, very nearly included him too.
Asked whether he would have enjoyed reuniting with Ronaldo, his former United teammate, at Real Madrid, Tévez did not hesitate.
"Yes, I would have loved that."
He acknowledged the rarity of the disclosure himself.
"It's the first time I've told this story."
For a player whose career already included spells at some of Europe's biggest clubs, the revelation adds one more name to the list — albeit one that exists only on a contract that, by Tévez's account, never made it out of a notary's office.