WORLD CUP USA '94 / THE FIRST ROUND : SPOTLIGHT : GESTURE OF FAITH

WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : SPOTLIGHT : GESTURE OF FAITH

By CHRIS DUFRESNE

July 2, 1994 12 AM PT

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After learning midfielder Stefan Effenberg had agreed to sell his story of his World Cup ouster to the German tabloids for an estimated 70,000 marks ($38,000), a competing German newspaper came up with the following headline:

“Effenberg: From Middle Finger to Goldfinger.”

Effenberg was sent home by the German team this week for making an obscene gesture to fans during a match against South Korea at Dallas.

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Chris Dufresne

Chris Dufresne was the Los Angeles Times’ national college football/basketball columnist from 1995 to 2015. He also covered skiing at the Winter Olympics and wrote extensively on most sports. He is a multiple national award winner and was named 2011 California Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Assn. A Los Angeles native, he started at The Times in 1976 as a truck loader and literally worked his way up (two floors to be exact).

WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : SPOTLIGHT : GESTURE OF FAITH

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