Arturo Vidal and talent vs. character debate

Is a talented player’s character and personality really an important factor when signing and judging their performance? Arturo Vidal has reopened that question at Bayern.

It is a given that for an athlete to have any chance of success in their sport, they needs to possess a God given talent for the game. This seems incredibly obvious. It is true that teams will actively seek to build a squad of players who have a requisite level of talent as it pertains to the club’s overall expectations. These days, however, we are hearing more and more about how important a person’s character is as a determining factor of whether a team acquires someone or has second thoughts.

But is character really all that important? Would a professional sports team, in the business of winning, refuse signing a star player because they might not be a great human being? Allow me a moment for a quick anecdote from my favourite NFL team, the New Orleans Saints.

On the back of an impressive 2013 season, the Saints gave linebacker Junior Galette a rather lucrative four-year contract extension. A good portion of it was guaranteed money. Underscoring his importance to a middle-of-the-road Saints defence, Galette was named one of the team’s defensive captains, an accolade which was voted on by his teammates. He did not disappoint. His on-field performances in 2014 seemingly justified the rather large price tag given the team’s issues with the salary cap.

RECOMMENDED SURE BET:

SOCCER PREDICTIONS FOR SUNDAY 21-04-2016

BELGIUM JUPILER LEAGUE:

Gent – Anderlecht     1win

BOLIVIA FUTBOL PROF:

Sport Boys - San Jose                        over 1

SPAIN PRIMERA DIVISION:

Real Sociedad – Getafe         1win              

Granada CF – Levante                       1win

It was not all rosy and nice.

A year later, Galette was cut from the team over allegations of domestic abuse stemming from an incident
earlier that year. While no charges were laid, it was enough for the Saints to determine that parting ways with Galette was the best course of action. It did not matter that his departure would not just severely weaken the side on the field but the team still owed him nearly half of his salary. This “dead money” wreaked havoc with the Saints’ salary cap numbers and the team’s performances on the field in the 2015 season definitely suffered for it.

The Saints made a conscious decision to “balance their karma,”after the 2012 Bountygate fiasco, knowing full well that it has hamstrung them as a competitive sports organization for the near future at the very least. With that said, Galette’s off-field incidents haven’t been an impediment to his employment. He was almost immediately (a little over a week later) signed by Washington.

Right. What does this have to do with Bayern? Two words: Arturo Vidal.

When it had been announced that Bayern had agreed to a transfer with Juventus for Vidal, I confess I was bitterly disappointed with the move. See, I have not hidden my dislike for Vidal going back to his tenure at Bayer Leverkusen. Iwas relieved that he chose Piedmont over Bavaria (initially) in 2011.

Admittedly, this was mainly due to what I knew of him on the pitch – his tendency to play over the edge coupled with his frequent bouts of simulation and going down under minimal contact. Recent displays of both, being substituted after 27 minutes against Stuttgart for fear of being sent off and the horrendous dive against Werder Bremen in the Pokal semifinal, show a pattern of play that is likely not going to change. Vidal is who he is.

If it were only on-field issues I could probably let it go and embrace Vidal as an important part of the current Bayern setup. I mean, I tolerate Arjen Robben’s swan dives and overlooked Mark van Bommel being a walking yellow-card-collecting machine. Vidal’s sins run deeper.

In the summer of 2007 Vidal was involved, not principally, in an incident with the police at the Under-20
World Cup in Toronto – a match that I was at as it happens. One could perhaps chalk that up to the wilds of youth, but it was just the first in a number of events that show a clear lack of common sense on Vidal’s part. Perhaps the most startling was this summer when Vidal was charged with DUI after he crashed his car on a highway in Chile. To make matters worse, the incident occurred in between Chile’s matches at the Copa América. There have been other alleged incidents as well, even after Vidal had signed for Bayern

You would have thought that in the case of the DUI charge, Vidal would have gotten the message about his destructive behaviour. Not only was he fined and given community service for it, but he put his wife’s an innocent motorist’s and even his own life at risk. Signs are clearly pointing to the contrary. This is not the type of person I want playing for the club I love. He should be putting football aside in order to get help for what appears to be a fairly serious problem with alcohol.

For their part, Bayern have seemingly looked past these rather serious off-field indiscretions because Vidal plays a role, more so in the latter half of the season, in the club’s success on the pitch. As an exercise in cost-benefit analysis Vidal’s positives outweigh the negatives. Of course Bayern are not the only club to ever field a talented player with major issues outside of the game, but this situation specifically leaves a poor taste in my mouth.

However, as a Bayern fan it is incredibly difficult for me to avoid falling into a hypocritical ditch being perched on this high horse of mine. When Vidal makes a last-ditch tackle to win the ball at a crucial time, I still applaud. When Vidal sets a teammate up for an opportunity to score, I still applaud. When Vidal hits a screamer that bulges the old onion bag, I still applaud. I can justify all of it by saying that I am merely applauding the team, but at this point it is very difficult to separate Vidal from Bayern especially when he is making contributions to the team’s success. I wish the whole Arturo Vidal issue was never our problem in the first place, but obviously there is no changing that now.

So I suppose there is not much of a debate to be had then is there? In professional sports an athlete with a high ceiling will almost invariably win out over the not-so-talented nice guy, as long as winning remains the primary objective. For modern football clubs, Bayern of course included, having talented players usually means winning. This in turn translates to lucrative sponsorships and television deals that fills their coffers and sustains their place at the head of the table. Because of this, it is not strange that they overlook some players’… character flaws.

Of course, most fans do not seem to be perturbed by this though. Or perhaps, such is the case with myself, they are a bit unsettled at the thought of their club being associated with a player of such questionable ethics, but at the end of the day will still support their team on the field simply because that is all they have ever done. One bad apple is not going to spoil the whole bunch.

CREDIT TO:http://www.bayerncentral.com/2016/04/arturo-vidal-talent-vs-character-debate/