The FIFA U-20 World Cup Chile 2025™ is now just one day away!
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By the age of 20, Arturo Vidal already had two years of first-team experience at boyhood club Colo-Colo under his belt, during which he had cut his teeth and held his own in an array of blood-and-thunder contests both domestically and in the CONMEBOL Libertadores.
Such was his promise that, in April 2007, the wonderkid was snapped up by Bayer Leverkusen for a sum of around EUR 10 million, the biggest transfer fee ever paid for a Chilean player at that point. The fledgling midfielder thus very much had star billing going into that year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup™ in Canada – the first edition of the tournament under that name, which kicked off on 30 June 2007 – and he more than lived up to the pressure and the hype.
Sporting the No14 and a flamboyant Mohican hairstyle that would become his trademark, Vidal was the heartbeat of a La Rojita side that broke new ground by securing the final place on the podium, which remains the country’s best showing at the competition to date.
Several other members of the squad that took Canada by storm, such as Mauricio Isla, Gary Medel and Alexis Sanchez, would later line up alongside Vidal in the teams that qualified for the 2010 and 2014 editions of the FIFA World Cup™ and made history by bagging back-to-back CONMEBOL Copa America titles in 2015 and 2016. Between them, these gems formed the spine of Chile’s golden generation.
This year’s U-20 World Cup will mark the hosts’ seventh appearance at the event – and a second on their own turf – and they will be determined to emulate Vidal’s vintage and give their fans something to shout about.
Although King Arturo is a central midfielder on paper and has spent the majority of his career as an all-action anchorman, the youngster found himself serving as a jack of all trades on Canadian soil. Under the tutelage of Jose Sulantay and customarily set up in a 3-4-3, that Chile side sought to dictate games while wreaking havoc through swift transitions, harnessing the pace running through the team.
Over the course of the competition, Vidal consistently caught the eye with what would become his signature combination of combativeness, ball-winning ability and orchestration, as well as popping up on choice occasions to make his mark in the attacking third. After offering a glimpse of his now famous taste for the spectacular with a pile driver to seal the 3-0 victory over Congo in group action, he grabbed the only goal of the game in the Round of 16 against Portugal.
However, the maverick’s sending-off – another motif of his subsequent career – in that match kept him out of the quarter-final clash with Nigeria. Although Vidal would return to the side for the semi-finals, Chile failed to reach the decider, having suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Argentina.
Sulantay’s troops bounced back from that disappointment to end the competition on a high, snaring bronze by edging past group-stage adversaries Austria 1-0. Their trailblazing campaign catapulted a string of future Chilean legends to the big time, foremost among them Vidal, who would become ever-present in the senior set-up thereafter.
