Arturo Vidal's rise from humble beginnings to national hero

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  • Vidal started out playing on gravel pitches (top r) outside his house.

    Penalolen, CHILE — There is much more to Arturo Vidal than Ferrari smash-ups and brawls outside Turin nightclubs. There are three things in life that the Juventus midfielder likes more than any others, things he has done so since he was a boy starting out in the humble surrounds of his native Chile.

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    The first is to be surrounded by people, usually family. He has a house in Penalolen, between Santiago’s Estadio Nacional, where he and La Roja take on Argentina to try and end the country’s 99-year wait for the Copa America, and the rolling hills that surround the capital.

    It is large, because he wants space for his nearest and dearest to be with him, something of huge importance to Vidal. Raised in one of the poorest areas of Chile, a young Vidal vowed to make it out of Poblacion El Huasco, in the San Joaquin district of Santiago, and earn enough money to provide for his family.

    Vidal was five when his father Erasmo left, with mother Jaqueline forced to look after him and his five siblings – three sisters, two brothers. Several accounts depict Erasmo as a drunk, with stories claiming he was forced out of the family home after setting fire to a bed. Since, reports of a suicide attempt and a drug arrest have emerged.

    Directly in front of the family house sits a football pitch – if you can call it that – with a surface of uneven stone instead of grass. This literally represented Vidal’s rocky road to success. It was there that he started to play, at around six years old, for amateur side Rodelindo FC Roman.

    The youngster’s nickname was Cometierra, or “eats ground”; not due to his dominance as a central midfielder, but because he would leave the field covered in the dust and dirt that lay upon it, which he had been sliding around in.

    Now he is called El Rey – the king and he has emerged from the gravel as the greatest. And when you watch him fly into tackles around the biggest stadiums in Europe, it is clear his high-energy game may have become more refined, but not changed at heart.

    Vidal's first club, Rodelindo FC Roman.

    His mother cleaned houses and carpets for a living, making enough money to put food on the table, but little else. At just 15, Vidal told her: “Mama, you will be my queen and you will never have to do this again.” He wasn’t lying.

    After being signed by Colo Colo, when he received his first professional wage, Vidal took his mother to the supermarket and paid for their groceries. And when he made the move from the Santiago side to Bayer Leverkusen in 2007, he returned to the family home to declare: “Mama, we are millionaires.”

    Leverkusen’s sporting director Rudi Voller had flown to Chile to convince Vidal to move to Europe, after he was scouted by Jonas Boldt at the U20 World Cup in Canada. He moved in with Boldt in Germany at first, the son of a Chilean woman who moved to Germany as a girl, helping reduce his homesickness.

    After moving to Juventus four years later, Vidal bought a large property in Turin too, again in order to host his family and friends – flying them out occasionally from South America to watch games. And he has not forgotten his roots either, periodically returning to the neighbourhood he grew up in.

    On the wall of Rodelindo’s ramshackle headquarters is a poster of Vidal, signed by the man himself. “For the club of my love, which saw me born,” reads the inscription. It is joined on the wall by photos of Vidal as a boy, just 13, no longer playing in his own age category, alongside team-mates of up to 35; all taller, stronger, fitter, but far less talented.

    The rubble pitch remains and the neighbourhood is more dangerous now, with drug use prevalent and reports of shootings in the streets nearby. But Ramon Henriquez, one of Vidal’s former neighbours, still lives in the area. He says he has known Arturo “since he was in his mother’s womb”.

    The gravel pitch outside Vidal's old house.

    Ten years older than Vidal, Henriquez observed the young footballer as he grew up, and says he is still pretty similar to how he was as a child. “He was a very naughty boy, but a very good guy,” he explained – which accounts for some of Vidal’s more controversial incidents.

    That car crash was one of the most memorable events of this Copa America, with news breaking overnight that Vidal had done so on the way back home from the casino, with his wife Maria Teresa Matus inside. Vidal was arrested for having alcohol in his bloodstream, telling the police: "Go ahead and handcuff me, but you're going to s*** all over Chile.”

    It was an unedifying incident, one of a string he has been involved in. From being fined €100,000 for fighting in the street at 5.30am in Italy to a ten-game ban for being drunk at the baptism of Jorge Valdivia’s youngest son, Vidal is never far from trouble.

    Perhaps he has taken the best of his mother, in his work ethic, his determination to succeed, and several charitable donations, and the worst of his father in the more controversial aspects. At least his two children, Alonso and Elisabetta, will never have to struggle in the same way he did.

    When asked about the Ferrari crash, Henriquez said: “With money he has access to special toys that he never dreamed about having. Now he deserves every moment he is living, and he has never forgotten about us. He was a very happy child. He liked being with his friends. In September we would always fly kites, up on the roof.

    “If you ask Alexis Sanchez for a picture he doesn’t do it, but Vidal, yes. He’s a nicer guy. We tell him all the time that he must be respectful with people, and he is the same Arturo Vidal that I have always known.”

    Vidal's uncle (l) and Henriquez (grey top).

    Vidal’s uncle, Victor, concurs. He told Sport 360: “He’s the same person, helping his family, his people, his friends, he helps out his club, he buys us beers. I speak to him all the time, he says hello to us at the games.”

    The second constant in Vidal’s life is his love of horses and only advice from horse trainer Enrique Carreno eventually guided him towards football, rather than the stable. Vidal’s legs were too long to be a jockey, so Carreno advised him he would be better off pursuing football than a career looking after the steeds.

    Vidal used to feed the animals, clean the stables and carry bets from his neighbours to the racetrack, before getting someone old enough to place them. “He would skip classes and head to the track, to watch the racing, and ask other people to put on bets for him,” explained Henriquez.

    The superstar still has strong ties to the sport and took advantage of being back in Santiago for the Copa America to visit the races at Club Hipico, the day after scoring in Chile’s opening day victory over Ecuador.

    He won there too, with his horse Clavito Godoy triumphant. Vidal’s presence caused a stir for all the right reasons at the track, with the jockeys speaking positively to Chilean television about their encounters with him.

    Now Vidal owns around 50 horses, and in February he sold one, Il Campione, for £1.3million, after buying it for just £58,000. The horse won the illustrious El Derby race and after proving its worth, has moved on to bigger and better things – not unlike the player himself.

    The third thing Vidal truly loves is football. Firstly, the ball itself, as both Henriquez and his uncle testify. The latter explains: "He was always playing with the ball, he liked it so much. He slept with it, he woke up with it, he played with it before school, when he came home for lunch, he would come out and play on the pitch after school."

    Vidal's first house, now renovated.

    Henriquez added, eyes twinkling: “He would eat with the ball, he would take a bath with the ball, everything with the ball. He had a different style of movement with the ball to the others. Nobody was better than him here.”

    He remembers how Vidal didn’t have enough money to take the bus to his trial at Colo Colo, so he ran the three kilometres there and back from his home. And how despite then being at a professional club, he would still feature for Rodelindo on occasion, rushing back to come on as a substitute and help turn losing scorelines into winning ones.

    Life at Colo Colo wasn’t always the easiest and Vidal had problems. When he first started out he was too skinny and needed to put on weight. Hugo Gonzalez, a youth coach who would become his 'second father' according to a biography on the player, helped him train with a special programme to build muscle.

    And at Leverkusen the struggles continued, with Vidal admitting: “It was hard, at 19. The language, the cold, the people, all of Germany was different from home.” But on the pitch, at both clubs, he was hugely impressive.

    He won three league titles with Colo Colo, and although he never won a trophy with Leverkusen, who paid £3.5m to secure his services, he played brilliantly.

    It coaxed Juventus into splashing out around £8m on him in 2011 and it proved to be a brilliant deal. In the four seasons since the move, his team has won the league on each occasion, his first season ending a nine-year wait for the Serie A crown.

    Vidal and his wife at the racetrack in Chile.

    Silverware has not followed at international level, but that is despite Vidal, not because of him – and Saturday’s final is La Roja’s best chance to end their long wait. He’s a national treasure, with Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet, turning up at his wedding. A stadium in San Joaquin bears his name, Son Alonso has Vidal’s distinctive Mohican haircut, with thousands of children across Chile following suit. If they can beat Argentina, you can expect thousands more to do the same.

    Through his troubles, the fans have stayed with him. His name was cheered louder than any other on his return to action against Bolivia, days after the Ferrari crash. And through it all, Vidal has always known he was going to go far.

    Henriquez explained: “He was always saying to the world, ‘I’m going to be a professional’. He knew. He knew that he was touched by the magic wand. And now he’s living like a millionaire, in Italy, having fun with [Andrea] Pirlo and [Gianluigi] Buffon.”

    Vidal has always been naughty, it’s in his bloodstream. But his passion for family, friends, football and horses is endearing and earnest. He is real; not a plastic, perfect athlete without spirit and soul.

    His uncle added: "He has to lift that Copa America trophy. We have a lot of faith that he will, he has all the support of us. He comes from a great club which is ours (Rodelindo) and he has everything going for him to do that. Arturo will be lifting that trophy on Saturday."

    History shows Vidal rewards those who have supported him, with his mother the greatest example. As well as buying her a house, paying for her studies and those of his siblings, the pair retain a close relationship. Vidal doesn’t forget the sacrifices she made for him. And this is why his uncle, his family, and around 17 million Chileans will be hoping he can repay their faith in him at the Estadio Nacional on Saturday.

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