Deals are moving really fast in the soccer world, and Arturo Vidal just made his deal official with Bayern Munich after getting the goodbye from Juventus.
Arturo Vidal is joining Bayern Munich after his club, Juventus, agreed a €37m (£25.9m) fee for the midfielder with a further £2.1m in add-ons. The Chilean midfielder has agreed a four-year deal worth £90,000 a week and will leave Turin after four years and four Serie A titles.
Vidal, 28, starred for Chile as they won the Copa America for the first-time ever this summer, but the man they call “King Arthur” has told Juventus he wants to leave the reigning Italian champions and head back to the Bundesliga.
Juventus’ chief executive Beppe Marotta confirmed on Monday, see below, that Vidal has asked to leave and it is believed an initial fee of $40 million has been agreed between the two clubs with adds-on taking the deal to $43.2 million.
Marotta: "@kingarturo23 has expressed his desire to embark on a different experience, as did Ogbonna, Tevez and Pirlo."
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) July 20, 2015
Vidal was involved in controversy this summer as he crashed his Ferrari in Santiago, Chile during the Copa America tournament and was arrested for DUI. He returned to the field of play after that incident and helped Chile to glory, with his powerful runs forward, tough-tackling and pinpoint passes key to his rise as one of European soccer’s top midfielders.
Vidal will now travel to Munich to have a medical and Bayern expect to announce the deal before the weekend. The German champions have been looking for a long-term replacement for Franck Ribéry, who has been struggling with injuries over the past 18 months, and concluded a deal for Vidal on Monday after a week of negotiations. Vidal’s agent, Fernando Felicevich, has been in Munich to finalise the deal, which will lead to a return to the Bundesliga for Vidal, who had a spell with Bayer Leverkusen between 2007 and 2011.
Bayern Munich have already signed the Brazilian attacking midfielder Douglas Costa from Shakhtar Donetsk for £21.3m with Bastian Schweinsteiger joining Manchester United.
It has been a summer of upheaval at Juventus with Carlos Tevez and now Vidal leaving and Mario Mandzukic, Sami Khedira and Paulo Dybala coming in. The Champions League finalists have now entered negotiations with Schalke to sign Julian Draxler to add to the manager Massimiliano Allegri’s options in midfield.