Wynton Rufer

Wynton Alan Whai Rufer CNZM (born 29 December 1962) is a New Zealand retired footballer who played as a striker. He spent more than a decade of his professional career in Switzerland and Germany, achieving his greatest success at Werder Bremen, where he won a total of four major titles and finished the top scorer in the UEFA Champions League 1993–94 season. He was also a member of the New Zealand national team in its first FIFA World Cup appearance in 1982. He was named the Oceania Footballer of the Century by the Oceania Football Confederation.

Wynton Rufer
Wynton Rufer in 2009
Personal information
Full name Wynton Alan Whai Rufer
Date of birth (1962-12-29) 29 December 1962
Place of birth Wellington, New Zealand
Height 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1980 Stop Out 5 (2)
1981 Wellington Diamond 19 (7)
1982 Norwich City 0 (0)
1982 Miramar Rangers 8 (3)
1982–1986 FC Zürich 100 (43)
1986–1988 FC Aarau 37 (18)
1988–1989 Grasshoppers 22 (12)
1989–1995 Werder Bremen 174 (59)
1995–1996 JEF United 54 (38)
1997 1. FC Kaiserslautern 14 (4)
1997 Central United 30 (12)
1998 North Shore United 11 (3)
1999–2002 Auckland Kingz 48 (12)
Total 522 (213)
National team
1980–1997 New Zealand 23 (12)
Teams managed
1998–1999 North Shore
1999 New Zealand U16
1999–2002 Kingz
2014–2015 Papua New Guinea
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Early career

Rufer was born in Wellington to a Swiss father and a New Zealand Māori mother. He affiliates to the Ngāti Porou iwi.[1] After leaving the city's Rongotai College, he played his first football for Wellington Diamond United, Stop Out and Miramar Rangers.

After being voted New Zealand's Young Player of the Year in 1981 and 1982,[2] Rufer attracted the attention of Norwich City manager Ken Brown, who invited the player and his older brother Shane Rufer to Norfolk for a trial. He impressed and signed a professional contract on 23 October 1981,[3] becoming the first Kiwi to do so. However, he was denied a work permit to play in England, so he joined Fussballclub Zürich in May of the following year.

Switzerland

Rufer would play in Switzerland in the following seven years, also representing FC Aarau and Grasshopper Club Zürich: whilst at the former, he topped the scoring charts at 21 in the 1987–88 season, helping his club to the fourth place. With the Hoppers, he won the domestic cup, precisely against Aarau, and surpassed the 100-goal mark in his years in the country.

Werder Bremen

In the 1989 summer, Rufer signed with SV Werder Bremen, coached by Otto Rehhagel. His Bundesliga debut came on 29 July, in a 0–0 draw at FC St. Pauli, and his impact was immediate, as he netted six times in his first 13 league matches. Overall, he would play an enormous part in the side's achievements, pairing with Klaus Allofs up front: on 6 May 1992, both scored in the final of the season's UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, in Lisbon (2–0 win against AS Monaco FC).

In the 1992–93 league season, as Werder won the third championship in the club's history, Rufer finished second in the scoring charts, at 17. On 8 December 1993, he scored two against R.S.C. Anderlecht in the UEFA Champions League, in a 5–3 home win (Anderlecht led 3–0 with 25 minutes to go); he finished as that competition's topscorer, alongside FC Barcelona's Ronald Koeman, and added his second German Cup.[4]

Rufer was voted Oceania's Player of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 1992.[3][5]

Later years

In 1994–95, the 31-year-old left Bremen and moved to JEF United Ichihara of the J1 League, finishing as the club's leading scorer in his second year. When Rehhagel took on the task of resurrecting 1. FC Kaiserslautern's fortunes in 1996 – the club would eventually return to the top division, as champions – he called upon Rufer in February 1997, and he contributed with four goals in 14 second division matches.[6]

Rufer returned to his country and successively represented Central United, North Shore United and Auckland Kingz, retiring at the age of nearly 40. He then founded a football coaching school, WYNRS, which produced football stars such as women's international Annalie Longo.[3]

With his brother Shane, Rufer took on player-coaching duties at North Shore United in 1998, before coaching the national Under-16 men's squad ahead of the 1999 Junior World Cup Finals, notably achieving a draw against the Under-16 men's teams of Austria and win over Norway in an unofficial U-16 World Cup tournament in Nice, France in 1998. He was appointed player-coach of the country's first professional football team, Auckland Kingz, participating in the Australian Soccer League for two seasons before retiring in 2001, having been named Oceania's Player of the Century ahead of Frank Farina (Australia) and Christian Karembeu (France, of New Caledonia descent).[4]

International career

Made his A-international debut for New Zealand against Kuwait on 16 October 1980 in the friendly international Merdeka Tournament in Malaysia aged 17 years and 291 days.[7] Added late to the squad for New Zealand in their World Cup qualification campaign in 1981 and played his first World Cup qualifier on 14 December 1981 against Kuwait, aged 18, scoring in a 2–2 draw for the 1982 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Rufer quickly established himself in the All Whites side. Late in the following year, he netted the 2–1 winner in the decisive playoff against China, which propelled the nation to its first World Cup ever.[4]

In the final stages in Spain, 19-year-old Rufer was the youngest member of the squad, appearing in all three group losses, against Scotland, the Soviet Union and Brazil.[8] In total, he gained 23 full caps, scoring 12 goals.[9][10] From 1985–89, he only collected a total of five international appearances, namely due to the fact Zürich would not release him;[4] from there until 1996, he did not appear for the national side at all.

Managerial career

In February 2014, Rufer was appointed manager of Papua New Guinea. He was also responsible for managing Papua New Guinea U19 at the 2014 OFC U-20 Championship.[11]

Personal life

During his time in Switzerland, Rufer converted to Christianity and married his wife, Lisa, in 1986. They have two sons, Caleb and Joshua, who are also footballers.[12] His brother Shane and his nephew Alex also played professional football and played for the New Zealand national team.

Career statistics

Club
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup Continental Other Total Ref.
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Stop Out 1980 National Soccer League 52––52 [13]
Wellington Diamond United 1981 National Soccer League 197––197 [13]
Miramar Rangers 1982 National Soccer League 83––83 [13]
FC Zürich 1982–83 Nationalliga A 2394271–3412 [14]
1983–84 2284231–2911 [14]
1984–85 22103351–3014 [14]
1985–86 28141151–3416 [14]
1986–87 520042–94 [14]
Total 100431282460013657 –
FC Aarau 1986–87 Nationalliga A 15700431910 [15]
1987–88 2211001493620 [15]
Total 37180018125530 –
Grasshoppers 1988–89 Nationalliga A 2212201463818 [15]
Werder Bremen 1989–90 Bundesliga 341055104004919 [15]
1990–91 33156400003919 [15]
1991–92 29541842[lower-alpha 1]24312 [15]
1992–93 321755441[lower-alpha 2]14227 [15]
1993–94 3310651081[lower-alpha 3]15024 [15]
1994–95 13230101[lower-alpha 4]1183 [15]
Total 174592921352055243105 –
JEF United 1995 J.League 26172617 [13]
1996 28212821 [13]
Total 54385438 –
1. FC Kaiserslautern 1996–97 2. Bundesliga 144144 [15]
Central United 1996–97 National Soccer League ????
North Shore United 1997–98 National Soccer League ????
Auckland Kingz 1999–2000 National Soccer League 256256 [15]
2000–01 186186 [15]
2001–02 5050 [15]
Total 48124812 –
Career total 481198412961263723620276 –
  1. Two appearances, two goals in German Super Cup
  2. One appearance, one goal in UEFA Super Cup
  3. One appearance, one goal in German Super Cup
  4. One appearance, one goal in German Super Cup

International
New Zealand national team[13]
YearAppsGoals
198040
198123
198262
198300
198400
198531
198600
198700
198810
198910
199000
199100
199200
199300
199400
199500
199632
199734
Total2312

Honours

Club

Grasshoppers[16]

Werder Bremen[16]

1. FC Kaiserslautern

Central United

Individual

References
  1. "Wynton Rufer CNZM". Māori Sports Profiles and Database. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  2. "Honours List". The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website. Retrieved 25 July 2008.
  3. "Rufer's a Wynr in New Zealand". FIFA.com. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  4. Maddaford, Terry (15 December 2001). "Soccer: Rufer - simply the best we've had". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  5. Pierrend, José Luis (26 February 2009). "Oceania Player of the Year". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  6. Arnhold, Matthias (23 February 2017). "Wynton Alan Whai Rufer - Matches and Goals in Bundesliga". RSSSF. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  7. Mamrud, Roberto (23 February 2017). "Wynton Alan Whai Rufer - Goals in International Matches". RSSSF. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  8. "NZ 1982 World Cup". New Zealand Soccer. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 25 July 2008.
  9. "A-International Appearances – Overall". The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008. Retrieved 25 July 2008.
  10. "A-International Scorers – Overall". The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website. Archived from the original on 28 February 2008. Retrieved 25 July 2008.
  11. "Wynton Rufer appointed PNG national coach". pngfootball.com.pg. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  12. "Caleb Rufer". WYNRS.
  13. Wynton Rufer at National-Football-Teams.com
  14. "Wynton Rufer". dbFCZ (in German). Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  15. "Wynton Rufer » Club matches". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  16. "Wynton Rufer". wynrs.co.nz. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  17. "Wynton Rufer". Ultimatenzsoccer. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  18. "Queen's Birthday honours list 2008". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 2 June 2008. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  19. "The greatest honour for any footballer". FIFA.com. 24 May 2002. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  20. "FIFA Ambassadors against Racism". FIFA.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2009.
  21. "IFFHS announce the 48 football legend players". IFFHS. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
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