Nevertheless, when Chile face Argentina in the Copa America final he will be crucial to any chance of success they have

But for all his obvious talent, the 28-year-old does have a considerable rap sheet of disciplinary problems

The midfielder joined Juventus four years later and is now rated as one of the top players in the world

Vidal rose through the ranks at Colo-Colo with a string of eye-catching performances sealing him a move to Bayer Leverkusen in 2007

He had a difficult childhood and was raised in poverty before having his talent for football discovered

Arturo Vidal will play a central role in Santiago on Saturday night as Chile take on Argentina in the Copa America final.

Jorge Sampaoli's side are bidding to end their 99-year wait for a major trophy, and ahead of the Estadio Nacional showpiece, Sportsmail looks at the man behind the player they call 'The Warrior'.

Chile midfielder Arturo Vidal (left) and team-mate Jorge Valdivia warm-up in training on Thursday

Had it not been for a leading racehorse trainer, Arturo Vidal may never have fulfilled his potential as a footballer.

From the age of nine, he would skip school, hop on his bicycle and pedal the six miles to Santiago's racetrack.

There, he would feed the horses and muck out their stables; all the time keeping a close eye on the money in his pocket that he had collected from his neighbours.

Before the racing started, he sought out a grown-up to place bets for him as his friends and family waited back home in the community of San Joaquin.

Deep down however, he knew his legs were too long for him to realise his dream of being a jockey and that his only equine options were to attempt to make his fortune by gambling or to keep looking after the horses in his care.

But his boss, Enrique Carreno, had seen Vidal playing with a ball and took him to the side one day. 'This is not for you, kid,' he said. 'You have a future in football.'

Horses have played a significant part in Vidal's life and he dreamt of getting into the saddle as a youth

Vidal is passing on his love of horses to his son, who gleefully poses outside a stable

Vidal (left) prepares to play a pass ahead of Peru's Juan Vargas (right) during the Copa America semi-final

Vidal celebrates after scoring a penalty during the Copa America group stage match against Mexico

Arturo Erasmo Vidal Pardo, born in 1987, is the eldest child of Jacqueline Pardo and Erasmo Vidal and was named after his grandfather who was crushed to death while driving his rubbish truck.

He grew up in poverty in a hectic household, along with his five siblings and members of his extended family, including his bedridden grandmother.

When he was five, his alcoholic father, who sold vegetables from a cart at La Vega market, set fire to the bed he and his wife slept in and was thrown out, leaving Vidal as the 'man of the house' while his mother worked as a cleaner.

At 15, he promised her that he would make her 'his queen' and that she would not have to do such work again. He was true to his word, eventually buying her a house and ensuring she was able to complete her studies.

And among Vidal's many tattoos, which include a horse complete with jockey, is one of his mother's face just below his right shoulder.

'My mother has worked so hard,' he has said. 'Of course I help in everything I can. I feel responsible for my younger brothers and long assumed a parental role, I'm like a father and a model figure, I really like it and I do fondly.'

His father, on the other hand, has endured a troubled and tragic life, attempting suicide in 2008 after drinking a bottle of Pisco brandy while three years later he was arrested, along with his sister, on suspicion of drug trafficking after police caught him selling cocaine. His brother and Vidal's uncle, Ricardo, homeless and an alcoholic, died of hypothermia two years ago.

At the same time as he was looking after his family, Vidal discovered a love of football.

Directly opposite the family home was, and still is, a gravel pitch, home of Rodelindo Roman Football Club who compete in Santiago's district leagues, where Vidal started playing aged six.

'He was always playing with the ball, he liked it so much,' his uncle Victor tells Sportsmail. 'He slept with it, he woke up with it, he played with it before school, when he came home for lunch, he would come out and play on the pitch after school.'

Vidal began his footballing odyssey at the tender age of six at the Rodelindo Roman Football Club

The Rodelindo Roman Football Club clubhouse is attended by several locals, among them Vidal's uncle

Vidal's childhood home, which has since been renovated, shows the far from glamorous upbringing he had

Vidal would often spend hours playing football on the local pitches before he was eventually spotted

Vidal (right) jumps for the ball with Peru's Juan Manuel Vargas during the Copa America semi-final

Vidal was nicknamed 'Cometierra' which translated literally means 'dust eater', as he would always be covered in dirt after playing, such was the all-action style he retains to this day.

Now the clubhouse that lines one side of the field carries a shrine to their most famous graduate, including a signed picture that carries the message, 'To Rodelindo, the club I love and which saw me grow up.'

'We knew he was going to be a very good player, that's why we supported him,' says former club president and family friend Ramon Henriquez. 'He was always saying to the world, 'I'm going to be a professional'. He knew he was touched by a magic wand and now he is having fun with [Andrea] Pirlo and [Gianluigi] Buffon.'

Among the many photos of Vidal is one of him in a team line-up. He is unmistakable as he is more than 20 years younger than the rest.

'He would often play with the adults,' adds Henriquez. 'He was better than everyone his own age.'

And when Vidal was 12, Colo-Colo, one of Santiago's 'big two', snapped him up.

'It was a coincidence,' explains Henriquez. 'His uncle was the mechanic of a former player of Colo Colo.

'He came here and saw Arturo play and asked the uncle who he was and then told him to take him to Colo Colo.'

Vidal (top row, fourth left) during his childhood on the sort of dusty pitch on which he earned his nickname

Vidal's old club Rodelindo Roman have kept a shrine to him, their most famous graduate

Vidal slides in with a challenge on Uruguay's Egidio Arevalo Rios (left) in the Copa America quarter-final

VIdal (bottom row, first from right) would often play with players 20 years older than him while growing up

Unable to afford the bus fare, Vidal ran the six-mile round trip to the trial and impressed enough to be offered a contract.

But he struggled to settle, unable to play because he was considered too thin and ordered to train every day if he wanted to remain at the club.

In his second year however, he caught the eye of coach Hugo Gonzalez, the man he considers his surrogate father.

After winning his first Scudetto with Juventus, Vidal said: 'I owe him a lot of what I am. It was he who gave me the chance to stay at the club and time proved him right.'

Vidal was put on a special training regime which included taking protein shakes to bulk up and was supervised by Carlos Burgos who also worked with tennis player Fernando Gonzalez.

His work ethic was evident when, instead of travelling to Europe with the Under 15 side, he stayed in Santiago and trained three times a day, such was his desire to graduate to the first team. Even today, he has the same gym equipment in his two-storey Turin home as is at Juventus, in order to replicate his training.

And despite being banned from playing for his old club under the terms of his deal with Colo Colo, he would often drop in.

'He was not allowed to play for us but he did it anyway,' recalls Henriquez. 'If the team was losing and he arrived at half-time, he would come on and we would always win.'

Vidal poses with wife Maria Teresa and his children after Chile's rousing 5-0 Copa America win against Bolivia

Vidal (right) cuts across to stop Uruguay's Cristian Rodriguez (centre) in his tracks at the Copa America

Vidal celebrates after scoring for Juventus in the Serie A match against Sampdoria

Vidal (left) tackles Borussia Dortmund midfielder Ilkay Gundogan in the Champions League last season

Vidal eventually found his feet and came to be nicknamed 'Celia Punk' by his team-mates. The first half comes from his love of salsa music, in particular Cuban singer Celia Cruz, while the latter refers to his Mohawk hairstyle, adopted by the punk culture from native American tribes.

His break came in 2005 when first-team manager Claudio Borghi asked to watch the youth sides.

Vidal - wearing the same No 23 jersey he now pulls on at Juventus - was promoted to the senior ranks and with his first professional wage, told his mum, 'We're going to the supermarket, and we're going to buy everything!'

He would go on to win three league titles alongside fellow future Chile internationals Alexis Sanchez, Jorge Valdivia and Humberto Suazo.

In 2007, Bayer Leverkusen's sporting director Rudi Voller travelled to the Chilean capital to personally ask Vidal to move to the Bundesliga.

Upon signing, he again made a beeline for home. 'Mama!' he cried. 'We are millionaires!'

But the midfielder remembers his relocation to Europe being difficult at first.

'[It is] always hard, at 19', he has admitted. 'The language, the cold, the people, all of Germany was different from home'

To help him acclimatise, he lived with the scout who had discovered him, Jonas Boldt, the son of a Chilean woman who had moved to Germany as a young girl.

Vidal soon rented a house of his own where he lived with family and friends and later did the same when he moved to Juventus for £7m in 2011.

No doubt a result of his upbringing, he makes sure he is always surrounded by those closest to him, wherever in the world his career takes him.

'He has never forgotten us,' adds Henriquez. 'When he comes to Chile, he comes back here.

'He will get tickets for us and he has flown some of us to Turin.'

Vidal began his career with Colo-Colo as a 12-year-old and moved to Bayer Leverkusen in 2007

Vidal competes against Gerard Pique during Juventus' loss to Barcelona in this year's Champions League final

Vidal jumps to control the ball during the Copa America semi-final against Peru at the Nacional Stadium

Vidal (left) tussles for possession with Peru's Jefferson Farfan during the Copa America's last four

His uncle adds: 'He's the same person, helping his family, his people his friends, he helps out his club, he buys us beers. I speak to him all the time, he says hello to us at the games.'

There is substance to the argument that Vidal inherited the best of his mother and the worst of his father.

For despite his extensive work helping those in need - he is vice president of a charity which supports terminally ill children - his wild side has all too often been evident, particularly since his move to Juventus, where he has won four successive Serie A titles.

At the Under 20 World Cup in 2007, he and several of his team-mates were involved in a brawl with police in Toronto. Both parties offered differing accounts of the incident but ultimately Chile's Jaime Grondona was banned for nine months and the country's FA fined £10,000.

In 2011 he, along with four team-mates, returned to Chile's World Cup qualifying training camp 45 minutes late and drunk from Jorge Valdivia's son's christening. He was kicked out of the squad and banned for 10 matches only to be pardoned and recalled after missing two qualifiers and three friendlies.

Two years later, a Colombian model recorded and released a video conversation with Vidal and Gary Medel in which they appeared drunk. He also missed his return fight to Italy after Chile secured their place at last summer's World Cup and was fined and benched for three matches.

A month into last season, he denied reports he had been fined £78,000 after he was photographed in a bar at 5.30am on the morning of his side's Serie A clash with title rivals Roma.

And the day after Chile's 3-3 draw with Mexico at this summer's Copa America, Vidal wrecked his £230,000 Ferrari after a visit to the casino. He was later charged with drink driving but remained with the squad and will take his place in the side for Saturday's final against Argentina.

Even his sprawling house in Santiago is said to have a nightclub in the basement.

This stadium near Vidal's home was named after him last year and he vowed to fund three schools

Vidal (left) runs with the ball ahead of Spain defender Sergio Ramos at the World Cup last year in Brazil

Vidal (left) trains with team-mates Valdivia (centre) and Jean Beausejour ahead of the Copa America final

'With money, you can excess,' admits Henriquez. 'He has toys he never thought he would have.'

Now, the 28-year-old is married to Maria Teresa with whom he has two children, Alonso, whose tattooed name adorns his right arm, and Elisabetta. The couple, married in 2009, held their religious ceremony last year with Chile's president Michelle Bachelet among the 500 invited guests.

The reception, of course, took place at Club Hipico, the racetrack Vidal still visits regularly to watch some of the 50 horses he owns, most recently the day after Chile's semi-final win over Peru.

There is certainly no doubting Vidal's popularity. A stadium near his home was named after him last year and at the ceremony, he vowed to fund three schools in his name.

'Everyone speaks about him in the streets,' says Henriquez. 'They identify with Vidal, he is a nice guy. We tell him all the time, he must be respectful with people.'

The neighbourhood in which he grew up however, is now rife with gangs and drug dealers.

His friends' children, who often copy his hairstyle, are encouraged to follow his example and escape from their background.