Football Arturo Vidal
Ex-Bayern star causes outrage with statements about Robert Enke
Status: 24.08.2023 | Reading time: 2 minutes
Arturo Vidal, nicknamed “The Warrior”, won the Copa America twice with Chile (2015 and 2016)
Source: picture alliance/dpa/Thomas Eisenhuth
Arturo Vidal, visibly amused, chats about his football career in a live stream. The Chilean commented on his first goal in the Bundesliga against Robert Enke with a tasteless comment. The outrage is great.
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. Hey, the goalkeeper had depression afterwards and killed himself,” said the 138-time Chile international in a live stream on the Twitch platform.
Vidal, who is now under contract with Brazilian first division side Athletico Paranaense, commented on his goal on 23 September 2007 in the Werkself’s 3-0 win over Hannover 96 and Enke. The 36-year-old smiled at the camera. 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.
“Just disgusting”
The criticism was not long in coming. Regarding Vidal’s statement, who played in the Bundesliga for Leverkusen (2007-2011) and later for FC Bayern (2015-2018), the Italian “Gazzetta dello Sport” wrote: “There are sentences that you immediately regret after you have said them said. This sentence from Arturo Vidal’s mouth is one of them. There can be no two opinions.” Vidal had played for Juventus Turin from 2011 to 2015 and for Inter Milan from 2020 to 2022. The Spanish sports newspaper “Marca” condemned Vidal’s comment, which was used for FC Barcelona from 2018 to 2022, as “just disgusting”. There was also severe criticism and a lack of understanding for Vidal on social networks.
A few hours after a wave of outraged and disappointed comments swept over him, the Chilean explained himself in another stream, saying: “To all the spiteful journalists: you saw in this video that I said everything with good intentions and nothing bad have. I didn’t laugh at it either, I would never do that. I told this anecdote, but never meant it in a bad way. I would never laugh at that.”
Arturo Vidal reached the cup final with Bayer Leverkusen in 2009 and was runner-up in 2011
Those: dpa/Federico Gambarini
Vidal did not explain why he had a smile on his face while telling the story.
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