 Rufer in 2009 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Wynton Alan Whai Rufer | ||
| Date of birth | (1962-12-29)29 December 1962 (age 62) | ||
| 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[citation needed] | (12) |
| 1998 | North Shore United | 11[citation needed] | (3) |
| 1999–2002 | Auckland Kingz | 48 | (12) |
| Total | 522 | (213) | |
| International career | |||
| 1980–1997 | New Zealand | 23 | (12) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1998–1999 | North Shore | ||
| 1999 | New Zealand U16 | ||
| 1999–2002 | Kingz | ||
| 2014–2015 | Papua New Guinea | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Wynton Alan Whai RuferCNZM (born 29 December 1962) is a New Zealand retired professionalfootballer who played as astriker. He spent more than a decade of his professional career in Switzerland and Germany, achieving his greatest success atWerder 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 theNew Zealand national team in its firstFIFA World Cup appearance in1982. He was named theOceania Footballer of the Century by theOceania Football Confederation.
Rufer was born inWellington to a Swiss father, Arthur Rufer, and a New ZealandMāori mother, Anne Hine Rufer (née Campbell). He affiliates to theNgāti Porouiwi.[1] After leaving the city'sRongotai College, he played his first football forWellington Diamond United,Stop Out andMiramar Rangers.
After being voted New Zealand's Young Player of the Year in 1981 and 1982,[2] Rufer attracted the attention ofNorwich City managerKen Brown, who invited the player and his older brotherShane Rufer toNorfolk for a trial. He impressed and signed a professional contract on 23 October 1981,[3] becoming the firstKiwi to do so. However, he was denied a work permit to play in England, so he joinedFC Zürich in May of the following year.
Rufer would play in Switzerland in the following seven years, also representingFC Aarau andGrasshoppers: whilst at the former, he topped the scoring charts at 21 in the1987–88 season, helping his club to the fourth place. With the Hoppers, he won thedomestic cup, precisely against Aarau, and surpassed the 100-goal mark in his years in the country.
In the 1989 summer, Rufer signed withWerder Bremen, coached byOtto Rehhagel. HisBundesliga debut came on 29 July, in a 0–0 draw atFC 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 withKlaus Allofs up front: on 6 May 1992, both scored inthe final ofthe season'sUEFA Cup Winners' Cup, inLisbon (2–0 win againstMonaco).
In the1992–93 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 againstAnderlecht in theUEFA Champions League, in a 5–3 home win (Anderlecht led 3–0 with 25 minutes to go); he finished as that competition's topscorer, alongsideBarcelona'sRonald Koeman, and added his secondGerman Cup.[4]
Rufer was voted Oceania's Player of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 1992.[3][5]
In 1994–95, the 31-year-old left Bremen and moved toJEF United Ichihara of theJ1 League, finishing as the club's leading scorer in his second year. When Rehhagel took on the task of resurrecting1. FC Kaiserslautern's fortunes in 1996 – the club would eventuallyreturn to the top division, as champions – he called upon Rufer in February 1997, and he contributed with four goals in 14second division matches.[6]
Rufer returned to his country and successively representedCentral United,North Shore United andAuckland Kingz, retiring at the age of nearly 40. He then founded a football coaching school, WYNRS, which produced football stars such as women's internationalAnnalie 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 ofFrank Farina (Australia) andChristian Karembeu (France, ofNew Caledonia descent).[4]
Made his A-international debut forNew Zealand againstKuwait on 16 October 1980 in the friendly international Merdeka Tournament in Malaysia aged 17 years and 291 days.[7] Added late to the squad forNew Zealand in their World Cup qualification campaign in 1981 and played his first World Cup qualifier on 14 December 1981 againstKuwait, aged 18, scoring in a 2–2 draw for the1982 FIFA World Cupqualifiers, Rufer quickly established himself in the All Whites side. Late in the following year, he netted the 2–1 winner in the decisive playoff againstChina, which propelled the nation to its firstWorld 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, againstScotland, theSoviet Union andBrazil.[8] In total, he gained 23 fullcaps, 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.
In February 2014, Rufer was appointed manager ofPapua New Guinea. He was also responsible for managingPapua New Guinea U19 at the2014 OFC U-20 Championship.[11]
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 brotherShane and his nephewAlex also played professional football and played for theNew Zealand national team.
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Continental | Other | Total | Ref. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |||
| Stop Out | 1980 | National Soccer League | 5 | 2 | – | – | 5 | 2 | [13] | ||||
| Wellington Diamond United | 1981 | National Soccer League | 19 | 7 | – | – | 19 | 7 | [13] | ||||
| Miramar Rangers | 1982 | National Soccer League | 8 | 3 | – | – | 8 | 3 | [13] | ||||
| FC Zürich | 1982–83 | Nationalliga A | 23 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 1 | – | 34 | 12 | [14] | |
| 1983–84 | 22 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | – | 29 | 11 | [14] | |||
| 1984–85 | 22 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | – | 30 | 14 | [14] | |||
| 1985–86 | 28 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | – | 34 | 16 | [14] | |||
| 1986–87 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | – | 9 | 4 | [14] | |||
| Total | 100 | 43 | 12 | 8 | 24 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 136 | 57 | – | ||
| FC Aarau | 1986–87 | Nationalliga A | 15 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 10 | [15] | ||
| 1987–88 | 22 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 9 | 36 | 20 | [15] | ||||
| Total | 37 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 12 | 55 | 30 | – | ||||
| Grasshoppers | 1988–89 | Nationalliga A | 22 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 6 | 38 | 18 | [15] | ||
| Werder Bremen | 1989–90 | Bundesliga | 34 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 49 | 19 | [15] |
| 1990–91 | 33 | 15 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 19 | [15] | ||
| 1991–92 | 29 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 2[a] | 2 | 43 | 12 | [15] | ||
| 1992–93 | 32 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1[b] | 1 | 42 | 27 | [15] | ||
| 1993–94 | 33 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 1[c] | 1 | 50 | 24 | [15] | ||
| 1994–95 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1[d] | 1 | 18 | 3 | [15] | ||
| Total | 174 | 59 | 29 | 20 | 33 | 20 | 5 | 5 | 241 | 104 | – | ||
| JEF United | 1995[16][17] | J.League | 39 | 21 | 1 | 1 | – | – | 40 | 22 | [13] | ||
| 1996[18] | 10 | 4 | – | – | 2[e] | 0 | 12 | 4 | [13] | ||||
| Total | 49 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 52 | 26 | – | ||
| 1. FC Kaiserslautern | 1996–97 | 2. Bundesliga | 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 4 | [15] |
| Central United | 1996–97 | National Soccer League | 30 | 12 | – | 30 | 12 | ||||||
| North Shore United | 1997–98 | National Soccer League | 11 | 3 | – | 11 | 3 | ||||||
| Auckland Kingz | 1999–2000 | National Soccer League | 25 | 6 | – | – | 25 | 6 | [15] | ||||
| 2000–01 | 18 | 6 | – | – | 18 | 6 | [15] | ||||||
| 2001–02 | 5 | 0 | – | – | 5 | 0 | [15] | ||||||
| Total | 103 | 31 | 103 | 31 | – | ||||||||
| Career total | 536 | 217 | 41 | 28 | 59 | 26 | 37 | 23 | 673 | 294 | – | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand[13] | 1980 | 4 | 0 |
| 1981 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1982 | 6 | 2 | |
| 1983 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1984 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1985 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1987 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1988 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1989 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1990 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1991 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1992 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1993 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1994 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1995 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1996 | 3 | 2 | |
| 1997 | 3 | 4 | |
| Total | 23 | 12 | |
| ‡ | Indicates goal was scored from apenalty kick |
|---|
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 October 1981 | Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand |  Kuwait | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 2 | 19 December 1981 | Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |  Saudi Arabia | 2–0 | 5–0 | |
| 3 | 5–0 | |||||
| 4 | 10 January 1982 | National Stadium, Singapore |  China | 2–0 | 2–1 | |
| 5 | 10 January 1982 | Queen Elizabeth II Park, Christchurch, New Zealand |  Hungary | 1–1 | 1–2 | Friendly |
| 6 | 26 October 1985 | Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand |  Israel | 1–0 | 3–1 | 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 7 | 5 October 1996 | Doha, Qatar |  Qatar | ?–? | 2–3 | Friendly |
| 8 | ?–? | |||||
| 9 | 11 June 1997 | North Harbour Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand |  Papua New Guinea | 3–0 | 7–0 | 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 10 | 4–0 | |||||
| 11 | 18 June 1997 | North Harbour Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand |  Fiji | 1–0 | 5–0 | |
| 12 | 3–0 |
Grasshoppers[19]
Werder Bremen[19]
1. FC Kaiserslautern
Central United
Individual
