Stig Tofting: "My father killed my mother and then took his own life. Soccer saved me "
ROME – "My father shot and killed my mother and then took his own life …" . Former Danish midfielder Stig Tofting has given a long interview to the Daily Mail. A tormented life, that of Tofting. When he was only 13, his father killed his mother and took his own life. In 1999 he sent a boy to the hospital after a fight in a Danish nightclub. In 2000, when he was denied a license to open a bar in his home country, he decided to stand as a mayor. Elected, Tofting then decided to resign. But still got the license.
In 2002, during the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, he was the protagonist of a fight with Jesper Grønkjær. In the same year he took over the ownership of a restaurant in Copenhagen complaining about the noise he was making with his teammates. Then he also beat the waiters. In 2003 he lost a 22-day-old son following a meningitis. In 2004 he was fired from Arhus for beating some teammates. During a Christmas party. In 2005 he finally released his autobiography "No regrets". The same writing that was tattooed on the abdomen.
It was 1983 and Tofting, at the time promising young Arhus, was happy because the next day he would have to play a youth championship final. But when he got home, Stig found his father's body lying on the stairs in a pool of blood. Next to him is a shotgun. In the kitchen the corpse of the mother.
"Losing parents this way – he tells the Daily Mail – changes your life. I learned to live with these memories. Unfortunately I was young and I could never do anything. Rather. If I had been home, I probably would have died too. "
"The day after I played the final – he says – They did not want me to play. But I never had doubts. My teammates did not know anything. In the end we won and I was chosen as a man matched by the national coach. "
"Soccer saved me – he continues – I have always lived it as a space where nobody could touch me. All the bad things left them out ".
Tofting made his debut in the Danish league in 1989, then played in the Bundesliga and in 2002 he moved to Bolton. The murder-suicide story came out in 2002, on the eve of the World Cup:
"I was with my wife in South Korea – he recalls – when television started talking about it, I had to remove my children. At the time they were still too small ".
In the same year the aggression in the restaurant: "We were drunk and we were celebrating after the World Cup – he explains – There was a misunderstanding with the owner and I hit him. Then they threw me out and there the fight continued. "
In 2003 the death of his son: "In comparison, what I spent in jail is nothing. I would have ten years in prison to get my baby back ".
Tofting was nicknamed "The Lawnmower" because he played all over the field: "In prison every night we played football. It was like being in retreat ".
Then he admits: "My best memory in football? When I exchanged the shirt with David Beckham. He also has my shirt but I do not think he hung it on the wall like I did. "
In 2005 Tofting accompanied Gravesen to Madrid: "When I got off the plane the journalists worried: and now who is this? We bought Gravesen ".
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Source: Blitz Quotidiano