With Arturo Vidal having claimed another league winners’ medal, we take a look at the Chilean’s glorious run in Italy, Germany and Spain.
Arturo Vidal’s trophy-laden run has continued at Barcelona after the Chile international collected an eighth straight league winners’ medal.
Ernesto Valverde’s team sealed LaLiga glory by beating Levante 1-0 at Camp Nou, with Vidal – a four-time Serie A winner with Juventus and a three-time Bundesliga champion at Bayern Munich – having appeared in 30 of Barça’s 35 games in his first campaign in Spain.
Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini won the league for an eighth successive occasion with Juve this season, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the only other man to have clinched eight successive titles across multiple major European leagues.
Ibrahimovic’s run from the 2003-04 season until 2010-11 featured triumphs with Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barcelona and AC Milan, although his two successes with the Bianconeri were later revoked following the Calciopoli investigation.
We take a look at the role he played in each of his eight triumphant campaigns.
Juventus 2011-12
Vidal, a three-time league champion in his native Chile with Colo-Colo, guided Bayer Leverkusen to second in the 2010-11 Bundesliga before helping start Juve’s ongoing dominance of Serie A. Vidal featured in 33 games for the Bianconeri, not ending up on the losing side once.
Juventus 2012-13
Half of Vidal’s 10 Serie A goals came in April and May as he scored winners against AC Milan and Palermo in a campaign where he f inished as the club’s joint-top scorer along with Mirko Vucinic. The midfielder also chipped in with eight assists.
Juventus 2013-14
The best return of Vidal’s career in Europe came as he scored 11 times when the Bianconeri claimed a 30th Scudetto. Juve won 33 matches that season, with the Chilean featuring in 27 of them.
Juventus 2014-15
Vidal’s header against Sampdoria in May sealed a fourth straight title, though the midfielder missed out on a treble in his final campaign in Turin as Barça beat Juve in the Champions League final. Vidal won the Copa America with Chile before returning to Germany.
Bayern Munich 2015-16
Pep Guardiola’s Bayern signed Vidal for an initial 36 million euros in 2015 and he featured 30 times in the Bundesliga as the Bavarian club clinched a fourth straight title. Having amassed 38 yellow cards and one red in four years in Italy, Vidal was booked just three times.
Bayern Munich 2016-17
Vidal only started 21 games under Guardiola’s successor Carlo Ancelotti as Bayern made it five in a row. As was the case in the season before, he scored just four times.
Bayern Munich 2017-18
Jupp Heynckes, Vidal’s coach at Leverkusen, replaced Ancelotti in October and guided Bayern to yet another title. Vidal, who scored in four successive league games in November and December, had his final Bayern campaign cut short by a knee injury suffered in April.
Barcelona 2018-19
Having been a key figure for Juve and Bayern, Vidal has been utilised more as a squad player by Valverde, coming off the bench on 10 occasions in LaLiga. His first Barça goal came in the 5-1 thrashing of Real Madrid in October.