Shaqiri? Görtler? Kutesa? Sanches? No, Renato Steffen is the best player. Unpleasant on and off the pitch. The trained painter is Lugano's difference player and the league's brightest splash of color.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- At the Swiss Football Night, Lugano star Renato Steffen has just been voted the best Super League player of 2024.
- Shaqiri is probably the most brilliant footballer with the finest left foot in the league. Sanches the most talented. Görtler the mental monster. Kutesa the most prolific scorer.
- But in the overall package, Steffen is the number 1 and the choice is justified. blue Sport gives the reasons.
FC Lugano will bring Renato Steffen back to Switzerland from VfL Wolfsburg in the summer of 2022. He brings 16 goals and 11 assists in 115 Bundesliga games with him to Ticino. With this transfer coup, FC Lugano underlines its great ambitions under new owner Joe Mansueto.
Lugano's idea behind the costly transfer coup? Steffen is supposed to ignite the turbo, turn a strong team into a championship contender and a well-behaved squad into a disgusting one. He should deliver goals and assists, of course. But above all, he should be snappy, demanding and unpleasant. For opponents and teammates.
Steffen brings opposing fan curves to the boil
Of course, Steffen's blunt statements in the dressing room also cause offense in interviews. Especially at the beginning. Whether after a win or a defeat, Steffen doesn't hide, stands up and says what he thinks. That's how he plays, too: he doesn't avoid a duel, allows himself to be provoked and provokes. In doing so, he brings opposing fan curves to the boil. And occasionally even his own club management. For example, after his teammate Vladi missed a penalty in the 2:1 defeat against YB (see video).
Carlos da Silva then told the Ticino media that he wanted to talk to Steffen these days. Whether this ever took place? Not important. This statement by the sporting director probably served more to appease the public than the dressing room. After all, Steffen is doing exactly what he was hired to do: He is direct and shakes things up.
Steffen is a gift for the Super League. A spectacle player, a difference maker, a head of character - even in front of the microphone. Steffen polarizes, Steffen entertains. Steffen stands out. Sometimes it seems as if he has fallen out of time. Alongside all the footballers trained and groomed by academies, consultants and media bosses, who hardly dare to say anything - for fear of saying the wrong thing.
The trained painter is the league's brightest splash of color
Shaqiri is probably the most brilliant footballer in the league with the finest left foot. He was not on the shortlist for the 2024 Super League Player of the Year because he returned to FCB too late in the calendar year. Sanches is probably the most talented. Görtler the mental monster. Kutesa the most prolific scorer.
But Steffen is the number one in the league as a total package. He is the mix between Shaq, Görtler, Sanches and Kutesa. The trained painter is also the Super League's brightest splash of color. Even off the pitch.
Want to bet that the opposing fans will also miss him if he retires one day? There's no other player they can get so worked up about.
