“I’ve combined all sorts of colors”, he loved to say. Annoying in Florence, references to Hitler, accusations against comrades, middle finger to fans, trials with a sexual background. And an autobiography with a strange chapter on Matthaus…
Lots of sex, enough goals and many more broken taboos, of the footballer who filled his career with excesses dictated by arrogance, vices and disposable waste due to boredom and a thousand idiocies, the latter attributable to a bully character who consecrated him – in the 90s – as the most irritating of humans who kicked a ball. He was likeable as a pit bull, he knew how to make himself hated both in Germany – where he was born – and in Italy, where he came to play, with the Fiorentina shirt. His name was Stefan Effenberg.