Jorge Valdivia is known for being … a bit controversial. Arguments with soccer authorities, rumors about off-the-field issues …

But he usually overcomes any of that with his football skills, which are advanced. Al Ain fans still get a bit rapturous when recalling his two-season stay with the team from 2008 to 10.

Fans in Chile, Valdivia’s homeland, can feel the same way — when he is not frustrating them.

Valdivia returned to the UAE this summer, signing with the Abu Dhabi club Al Wahda, and in his first match he had a rough time as visitors Al Shabab seemed to target him in a less-than-friendly way.

He was picking himself off the ground a lot.

He also caught some flack from Shabab fans, and at halftime he seemed to respond with a familiar, one-finger salute.

Check the embedded video in the middle of this Spanish-language story.

Hmm. Certainly seems like an unfriendly gesture in there.

When enough people had seen the video … Valdivia’s new club felt obliged to explain what had happened.

According to Wahda’s news release, it was all a joke between Valdivia and his friends from Chile.

The key quote from the Wahda statement, which appeared in The National:

“Jorge Valdivia has insisted that the hand signal he gave at halftime in the match between Al Wahda and Al Shabab was directed at a group of his friends who had attended the match, and at no one else.

“He added that it is a sign that is regularly exchanged between friends in Brazil and Portugal as a joke and does not hold any negative intentions.”

Valdivia used the statement to defend his actions, saying: “I hope that the fans do not misunderstand it.”

Well, good thing he addressed that, because a person can see how he might have been misunderstood, considering his gestures came while he was walking in front of Shabab fans.

More from the statement:

Wahda’s team manager … said Valdivia has been subjected to “intense scrutiny” since he returned to the UAE last month.

“For our part we have spoken to the player and asked him to refrain from acting in any way that could be deemed controversial,” Al Hammadi said.​

So, cultural misunderstanding … and we all move on.

Though there is a sense of two things:

1. Valdivia may have just used up a big chunk of credibility there, with a long season still ahead.

2. It is going to be a very long season for him if Shabab’s targeting him becomes the standard strategy around the league.