Former Bundesliga professional Arturo Vidal caused massive criticism and outrage with a comment about former German national goalkeeper Robert Enke. “That was my first goal in Europe with Bayer Leverkusen. Listen, the goalkeeper was depressed afterwards and killed himself,” said the former Chilean international in a live stream on the Twitch platform about his goal on 23 September 2007 in the Werkself’s 3-0 win over Hannover 96 and Enke.
Enke, who was suffering from depression, took his own life on November 10, 2009. The former Hannover 96 goalkeeper played eight caps for the German national team between 2007 and 2009. On Wednesday (local time), Vidal firmly rejected the accusation that he had made fun of Enke’s story with his statement. “I meant everything well, I never said anything bad. I never said it laughing either, I would never do such a thing,” said Vidal, who currently plays for Athletico Paranaense in Brazil, in another Twitch stream. “I was just telling this anecdote, but it was well intentioned. I would never laugh at something like that.”
Michael Reinsch, Budapest Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3 Jürgen Kalwa, New York Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 9 Pirmin Clossé Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3
About Vidal’s (36) statement, who played for Leverkusen from 2007 to 2011 and for FC Bayern Munich from 2015 to 2018, the Italian “Gazzetta dello Sport” wrote: “There are sentences that you immediately regret after saying them . This sentence from Arturo Vidal’s mouth is one of them. There can be no two opinions.” The Spanish sports newspaper “Marca” condemned the comment as simply “disgusting”. There was also severe criticism and a lack of understanding for Vidal on social networks.
