Barcelona continues to have a strong offseason on the transfer market. The La Liga giants announced on Friday that they reached an agreement to acquire Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal from Bayern Munich. The deal was confirmed by Bayern as well, with the club posting a tribute video on their social media.
¡Gracias por todo @kingarturo23 , y la mejor de las suertes en España! 🍀 #MiaSanMia pic.twitter.com/gxXRTDWKr2
— FC Bayern München (@FCBayern) August 3, 2018
“On behalf of everyone at Bayern, I’d like to thank Arturo very much for three fantastic years,” – said Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in a statement. “We won a lot of silverware in that time, and Arturo played a major role in those wins. He was a leader, also in the big game. We could always rely on him.”
Arturo Vidal joined Bayern Munich in 2015 from Juventus in a transfer worth around $46 million. He enjoyed a successful run with the club, winning three Bundesliga titles and scoring 22 goals during his time in Germany. Given the fact that Vidal’s contract is about to expire, Bayern was shopping the 31-year-old in the past weeks with the Inter Milan and Chelsea also being some of the contenders for his signature.
According to several Spanish media outlets, Barcelona paid close to $30 million for Vidal services. The club was in need of a midfielder reinforcement since both Andrea Iniesta, and Paulinho left the club after the last season. Some of the options were Paris Saint-Germain’s Adrien Rabiot and Ajax’ Frenkie de Jong, but Barca decided to go with more experience player in Vidal.
