Stig Tøfting

Stig Tøfting (born 14 August 1969), nicknamed Tøffe, and The Lawn Mower, is a former Danish professional footballer and assistant coach, who most recently was the assistant of Erik Rasmussen at AGF.

Tøfting played most of his career as a defensive midfielder, and he was a hard-hitter who often engaged in rash tackles. He started his career with AGF Aarhus, with whom he won two Danish Cups, and most notably went on to play for German clubs Hamburger SV and MSV Duisburg, as well as Bolton Wanderers in England. He ended his career in 2007 with Randers FC, having won the 2006 Danish Cup with the team.

He played 41 matches for the Danish national football team between 1993 and 2002, in which he scored 2 goals. With Thomas Gravesen, Tøfting formed a fearsome midfield duo on the national team from 1998 to 2002, playing the Euro 2000 and 2002 FIFA World Cup together.

In June 1999, Stig Tøfting received a 20-days suspended jail sentence for assault, while on holiday in Aarhus. He played on for Duisburg without any repercussions from manager Friedhelm Funkel. In the 1999–2000 Bundesliga season, Duisburg were dead last in the tournament, and Tøfting was loaned out to AGF in the last part of the 1999–2000 Superliga season.

In moving to Bolton, Tøfting hoped to secure his place in the Danish national team for the up-coming 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament.[7] In his fourth game for Bolton in March 2002, he suffered an injury which caused a two-month-long recovery. He returned to play the last game of the 2001–02 Premier League season in May 2002, and was called up for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

In celebrations among the Danish players following the 2002 FIFA World Cup, at "Café Ketchup" in Copenhagen, Tøfting had head-butted the proprietor of the café. He stood trial for the incident in October 2002 and was convicted to four months in jail. After the conviction, he got his Bolton contract reduced until summer 2003. He served his jail time from April to July 2003.

He was released early from prison in July 2003, in order to move to China to play for Tianjin Taida. When his Taida contract expired in December 2003, he once again returned to AGF in February 2004. In July 2004, Tøfting was once more under charges for violence after he pushed a man in the chest following a traffic dispute,[8] and received two fines of DKK 1,000 each. In December 2004, Tøfting was fired from AGF following a bust-up at an AGF players' Christmas lunch.[9]