On June 16, 2015, the Chilean team was resting after playing the second match of the Copa América that took place in Chile. The day before La Roja had faced Mexico, drawing 3-3.
The day after equality, one of the most embarrassing situations in national football took place. That night Arturo vidal destroyed his Ferrari while driving drunk after attending a casinotaking advantage of the fact that Jorge Sampaoli had given them that day off before concentrating again.
As a result of that, the King began to receive a series of criticisms and requests for him not to continue in the squad that ended up winning the title after beating Argentina in the penalty shootout.
Now, Jorge Valdivia has provided new details of how this situation was experienced internally. “Our only concern was Arturo. I don’t remember if he went with (Jorge) Desio or Seba (Beccacece), we told him ‘we must support him, don’t even think about removing him from the national team.‘”, recalled the now commentator in dialogue with ESPN Fútbol Show.
He added that the coaching staff led by Jorge Sampaoli was in favor of supporting the midfielder. “I don’t know (if they doubted his continuity). I would dare say no, because Arturo and Sampaoli had a very good relationship, there was a lot of connection between them.”.
“Beyond the importance he had on that team in terms of football or in the dressing room, I feel that Sampaoli understood that removing him from the National Team could generate something negative for us, which would mean that we would become destabilized.”he added.
Finally, Valdivia appreciated the fact that the Casildense ended up supporting the King. “There was the virtue of Sampaoli and the team that was in the National Team to say ‘we stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder and move forward,’” he concluded.
This is a new precedent that adds to what Johnny Herrera had commented a few months ago. Today’s commentator was one of the goalkeepers who made up the squad in that tournament.
His story began at the moment when the deadline to return to concentration had expired. “Arturo was missing and we had to get to Juan Pinto Durán to eat at 9:00 p.m. We were sitting with Claudio (Bravo) and (Cristopher) Toselli, waiting for Arturo to arrive. There they tell me: ‘let’s catch the altiro,’” he introduced on TNT Sports.
“I didn’t catch Twitter and Claudio starts checking. There we realized that he had had an accident. A Ferrari came out and we realized what had happened”he added.
“People asked for the pain of hell, but the team was very supportive in making it happen,” Herrera said and then referred to the moment in which Vidal apologized. “TOrturo had a bad time, he started crying at the conference. It was to support him and make him feel that anyone can have an accident. I was fine and nothing happened. It was something very serious, but there was support from us”.
Who also had words about this fact was Jean Beausejour. In conversation with Chilevisión, the ex-lateral stated that “there was only one group conviction and that was that justice should take care of it. We (the team) did not have to cross certain limits. Everyone makes their own value judgment, but it was up to us to safeguard the group.”.
“They are high-impact events that do not leave you in the middle. “It defines you in one way or another,” she added.
