Arturo Vidal

Arturo Vidal is a professional Chilean footballer who was born on May 22, 1987 in Santiago, Chile. He plays at the position of midfielder for Barcelona and Chile national football team.

Background

Vidal began his professional football career with Chile's most successful club Colo-Colo in 2005 where his debut came in the first leg of the Apertura Tournament final against arch rivals Universidad de chile. He came in late as a substitute for Gonzalo Fierro and helped them to win the game 2-1 which led them to a tournament victory.

He has also represented Chile at the Under-20 level at the 2007 South American Youth Championship in Paraguay where he was tournament's second highest goal scorer with six goals which helped him to get selected for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada. Chile finished at third position in that tournament where Vidal scored two goals including a match winner against Portugal in the round of 16.

Debut

Vidal made his debut for senior Chile team in a friendly game over Venezuela, where Chile won 1-0 post 2007 where he later became a regular member of the Chilean squad and was also selected in the 23-man squad for 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

Rise to glory

Vidal's last year with Bayer Leverkusen was the most successful Bundesliga season for him which was during 2010-11. He helped his team to finish as runner-ups where Vidal finished at the top of assists chart of his club by doing it 11 times and was also the joint second highest in the league.

Low points

On June 16, 2015, something tragic happened in his personal life where he suffered minor injuries when under the influence of alcohol he crashed his Ferrari in Santiago. He left the hospital in a police car and allegations were made against him for the charges of drunk driving.

He was banned from driving for years, however, was later allowed to play in the Copa America that year.

Club career

In 2006, Vidal began his club career with Colo-Colo during Apertura Tournament against Universidad de Chile where he came in late as a substitute for Gonzalo Fierro and helped his team to not only win that match 2-1 but also the Primera Division.

For 2007 Apertura Tournament, Vidal moved to Bayer Leverkusen after showing good performance at the U20 World Cup. The transfer fees was around $11 million which broke the previous national record of Matias Fernandez $9 million transfer to Villarreal. He missed the first game due to an injury but made his debut on August 9, 2007 in an away loss to Hamburger SV.

2010-11 was the last Bundesliga season for Vidal where he helped Bayer to finish as the runner-ups in which he contributed 11 assists which was the joint second highest in the league.

For 2011-12 season, Vidal joined Juventus for €10.5 million on a five year contract where he made his debut against Parma and marked the day with scoring a goal after six minutes of his introduction and helped Juventus to win 4-1. Vidal began his 2012-13 season by scoring a penalty in the Supercoppa Italiana on August 11, 2012 and defeating Napoli by 4-2 in the extra time.

He also helped his club to won the Serie A title for the second consecutive time where he scored 10 goals and was voted as the Player of the Year by the registered users on the Club website juventus.com.

After playing for many years with Juventus, Vidal was named in the top 10 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award 2015. After that, in 2015, Vidal returned to Bundesliga joining Bayern Munich on a four year deal for a fees of €37 million plus €3 million bonus and he made his debut in a match against VfL Wolfsburg which resulted in a 1-1 draw.

Records

Arturo Vidal was part of the teams mentioned below that won the following tournaments:

Colo-Colo: Torneo Apertura in 2006 and 2007; Torneo Clausura in 2006.

Juventus: Serie A in 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15; Coppa Italia in 2014-15 and Supercoppa Italiana in 2012 and 2013.

Bayern Munich: Bundesliga in 2015-16 and 2016-17; DFB Pokal in 2015-16 and DFL Supercup in 2016, 2017.

For Chile, he was there when they won Copa America in 2015 and 2016.

In his individual records, he was named in the Bundesliga Team of the Season in 2010-11 and 2015-16; Best Chilean Player Abroad in 2011; Juventus Player of the Year in 2012-13, Midfielder of the Season by Goal.com in 2012-13 and Chilean Footballer of the Year in 2016.