Today the Danes play against Wales in the round of 16. Exactly 29 years ago they won the European Championship in 1992 against Germany. On that day, Stefan Effenberg played against his best friend Brian Laudrup. But after the final nothing was as it was before.
“If I had been a woman I would probably have married him, I was so into him.” The rough-haired blonde Stefan Effenberg actually said that once about his best friend and teammate at the time, Brian Laudrup. In their days together at Bayern Munich, the two went through and thick and thin. “Brian was like a little brother to me,” said Effenberg many years later. But suddenly everything was over. And basically the European championship in Sweden in 1992 was to blame.
A scene from October 1991 shows how close the relationship between the then 23-year-old Dane and Effenberg, who was only a few months older, was. In the days and weeks before, Stefan Effenberg had had some stress with his trainer Jupp Heynckes. The argument between the two went so far that one day the situation escalated completely and Effenberg openly threatened his coach with a beating: “Do we want to sort it out outside?”
The power of Jupp Heynckes was of course undermined bit by bit by such actions. And when the sporting situation finally became more and more catastrophic, Uli Hoeneß thought that there was no other way out for him and FC Bayern than the expulsion of the coach. The manager at the time still describes Heynckes’ dismissal as his “greatest mistake”. But what happened next has never been forgotten by anyone involved.
“We shared everything except our wives, of course!”
After the first game after being kicked out, Brian Laudrup and Stefan Effenberg suddenly stood at the door of their ex-coach. They had two bottles of red wine with them. The reason for their coming: They wanted to thank Heynckes personally for allowing them to train under him. After a wet and happy evening, the later triple winner thanked Laudrup and Effenberg in return: “I knew exactly if someone else from the team would come by, it would be you two.” Heynckes’ words were no accident. The nimble Dane and the combative German were simply inseparable these days. Effenberg recalls: “We always hung out together and shared everything, except for our wives, of course!”
The two friends also made regular phone calls at the European Championship, after all, both of them should then go to Italy together. Fiorentina had signed Effenberg – and then asked him about his buddy Brian. And since the native of Hamburg found a time together with his “real buddy” in Florence “awesome”, he made Laudrup “even better than he really was” towards the AC officials. It worked. But shortly after the Dane signed his contract, nothing was as it was before between the two of them.
Even after the Danes won the European Championship final, the two hadn’t exchanged a word. Laudrup had refrained from going to his friend on the lawn after the game that evening when he saw that he was close to tears. But after a few days had passed, the two met again in Florence. But only for a short time, because the Dane still had to settle a few things in Munich and his home country after signing the contract. Before that, however, Laudrup had treated himself to something: a brand new Mercedes SL Cabriolet. At the time, Effenberg said about the spontaneous acquisition of his buddy that he wanted to “do a bit of the fat”.
“A disgusting repertoire of ugly tricks”
Ben Redelings is a passionate “chronicler of football madness” and a supporter of the glorious VfL Bochum. The bestselling author and comedian lives in the Ruhr area and maintains his legendary treasure trove of anecdotes. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Tuesdays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and his book with the best columns (“Between Puff and Barcelona”) can be found on his website www.scudetto.de.
But since the car still appealed to him, the blond German asked the hotel porter to give him the key for the car in Laudrup’s absence and went on a little jaunt. Afterwards he said: “After that, the thing had maybe 100 kilometers more on the speedometer!” When Laudrup was back in Florence, Effenberg told his friend about his little drive – but Laudrup reacted very differently than Effenberg had expected. The Dane freaked out completely. And Effenberg was totally flabbergasted: “Brian, what’s your mood? I didn’t pimp your wife, I just drove your car. Do you have a shadow, or what?”
From that second on, the two of them haven’t spoken a single sensible word to each other. The contact broke off completely – and an intimate friendship broke up forever. Just a month later, when the final revenge between Denmark and Germany took place in Copenhagen in September 1992, they showed an audience of millions how quickly and how quickly the two grew apart. The next day the “Ekstra Bladet” wrote about Effenberg that he had “a disgusting repertoire of ugly tricks”. And his teammate and ex-buddy Brian Laudrup, of all people, was in the focus of his nasty attacks.
Effenberg said frankly afterwards: “Once I really wanted to grab him. But at the last moment I withdrew. I have to and want to continue playing with him at the club.” What words! No wonder the story of the once best friends finally came to a sad end.
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