Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal stated during his official presentation as a new Flamengo player that he always dreamed of wearing the shirt of the Brazilian club, which he arrives to win titles.
«I am very happy, it was my dream and there is still a little more to be the happiest man, which is to enter the field with the shirt (number 32) of Flamengo. That will be my happiest moment », pointed out the 35-year-old footballer during his presentation at the club’s sports headquarters.
“I come to win titles, if I hadn’t stayed in Chile to enjoy my vacations,” Vidal said in response to a statement from former Brazilian international Cicinho, who said this week that the Chilean had arrived in Brazil at the end of his career, more to “have fun” than to deliver on the field.
The Chilean national team player has become, up to now, the main contract in the Brazilian League for the second half of the year and with the Rio de Janeiro team he also hopes to win the Copa Libertadores title, a conquest that Vidal still does not have in his career.
«My first dream is to help the team win the Libertadores. Flamengo has to win everything. I have won many things, but the Libertadores is one of the things that a soccer player in South America dreams of having”, he said.
The “love” for Flamengo, Vidal said, arose from the stories of some Brazilians with whom he played in Europe and they told him about the roots that the Rio de Janeiro club has throughout Brazil.
“I’m bristling. I always wanted to play with Flamengo and I talked about it with Renato Augusto, when he was at Bayer Leverkusen, and with Rafinha, with whom I spent three years at Bayern Munich », he commented.
The former player of Barcelona of Spain and the Italians Juventus of Turin and Inter Milan indicated that he has no preference in any of the Flamengo midfield positions in which coach Dorival Júnior intends to use him.
“In all three positions I feel comfortable. In Italy and Germany I played more on the right, to go back and forth, but as long as I play I don’t think there will be a problem. I hope to adapt as quickly as possible and when there are good players it flows faster », he pointed out.
For Vidal, “European football is more physical, but in Brazil the intensity is very strong, the players are very fast” and, in his opinion, “technically they are better than in Europe.”
On the other hand, the Chilean ruled out that his temperament, sometimes strong, could affect the fact that the referees in Brazil already have him “marked”.
“My way of playing is always to the limit, but always respecting the rival,” he stressed.
He highlighted, among his new teammates, the lateral Rodinei.
“I really liked the way he played, the strength he has, he’s a machine,” praised Vidal, who also spoke about his particular haircut, a personal brand of the Chilean that, according to the press, is beginning to be a trend among the youngest Flamengo fans.
“I wanted to change the color of the crest and if the boys want to copy it, that’s fine, but the most important thing is that they enjoy Flamengo’s titles,” he said. EFE
