Vidal was born in
Porto do Son,
A Coruña,
Galicia. After an unassuming career (the
central defender never played in
La Liga and appeared in only 15
Segunda División games) he took up coaching in 1982, first with
Cádiz CF in his adopted city. Vidal began with the
Andalusians' youth sides, then moved to assistant manager, being finally appointed head coach for the
1988–89 season after a brief interim spell in 1987. It was during that time he managed arguably the club's best ever player,
Mágico González, of whom he once said: "Technically he was better than
Maradona". After two and a half additional years in the top flight with modest
CD Logroñés, who always retained their status, Vidal resumed his career mainly in the second tier. On 12 January 2007, he was appointed manager of
Elche CF following the sacking of
Luis García. On 12 October 2008, as a draw at
RC Celta de Vigo meant Elche only managed two points from seven matches, the manager was dismissed after a meeting with the board of directors; his assistant, former
Spain and
Deportivo de La Coruña player
Claudio Barragán, was temporarily placed in charge of the team. On 17 March 2010,
Albacete Balompié announced that Vidal would replace
Julián Rubio as manager until the end of
the campaign. Having helped the
Castilla–La Mancha side to avoid relegation from division two, as 15th, he was released. Vidal returned to Albacete midway through the
2010–11 season, replacing the fired
Antonio Calderón. He was also relieved of his duties after only one and a half months in charge, as the team was eventually relegated to the
Segunda División B after 21 years. As it was in the midst of severe economic problems, he left less than one month later, and continued to work in the lower leagues. In May 2017, Vidal
achieved promotion to the second division with
Lorca FC after arriving the previous month. On 5 June, however, his contract was not extended. On 20 June 2019, Vidal was appointed manager of
Racing Murcia FC in the
regional leagues. In October 2020, he left for personal reasons and was replaced by Antonio Pedreño. ==Honours==