Arturo Vidal to stay at Inter Milan in spite of offers
Inter midfielder Arturo Vidal has been linked with a move away from the Italian giants, but his agent has ruled out an end-of-season exit.
Arturo Vidal has received offers to leave Inter Milan but intends to stay at San Siro and win the Champions League next season, his agent Fernando Felicevich has claimed.
Vidal has offers from Brazil, France and Turkey
The Chile international joined Inter from Barcelona at the start of the season to reunite with Antonio Conte, having previously won three Serie A titles together at Juventus. He has featured 30 times in all competitions for Conte's side this season, but was struck down by a knee injury earlier this month that required surgery. Vidal still has two years to run on his contract, yet that has not stopped speculation that he is a target for the likes of Olympique Marseille, Flamengo and Galatasaray.
But while clubs are indeed interested in signing the 33-year-old, agent Felicevich insists his client has no intention of departing the Italian giants at the end of the campaign. "It is normal for a player at the level of Arturo to receive proposals, but nothing has changed for us," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "His future is at Inter and he is only thinking about winning the Scudetto in May and trying to win the Champions League next season."
Vidal has appeared 23 times in Serie A this season, 14 of those in the starting XI, and has helped Inter to open up a six-point gap over AC Milan at the summit with a game in hand. The former Barça, Juve and Bayern Munich man has averaged 2.13 tackles per 90 minutes in the Italian top flight this term, which is the most of any Inter midfielder. Marcelo Brozovic and Nicolo Barella are next on the list with 1.95 and 1.92 respectively.
Vidal also leads the way when it comes to interceptions, his average of 2.29 substantially more than next-best Stefano Sensi's 1.86. Another metric he ranks highly in is duels won - only Barella (5.94) averages more than Vidal (5.04), with Roberto Gagliardini (4.83) in third.
Conte will therefore be eager to get the Chilean back to full fitness, and Felicevich delivered a positive update in that regard. "His recovery programme is almost finished and he will soon be able to return to the pitch and add his contribution to the final stages of the season," he said.