Wynton Rufer

Didn't Wynton once champion a "Max Zone" in football? I'm sure a trial game was played where goals from outside the box counted for two?

Don't know if this was ever posted anywhere else. From 2013.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/739...

that's a funny point that is, it used to be all we could do! for years our biggest goal threat was corners and free kicks with the likes of herbert, evans and dunford getting on the end of them.  now not so much

Sir Colin is close to death. They will give him the send off for the great player he was, regardless of any personal shortfalls.

I'm no hard-core religionist myself but I'd be disturbed if we wouldn't honour the Oceania Player of the 20th Century because he's "into God". There is an interesting link between strong religious views and top sportspeople - not that I think any god is granting favourite players favours, but to do with psychological issues of commitment, etc.

Which includes avoiding the devil's water - booze and related late nights out. The downfall of many a wannabe top sportsmen.

I kind of equate it to sportspeople generally commiting to sports at the expense of education.

Like David Kirk, All Black and Rhodes Scholar.

generally...

or Ceri Evans, All White and Rhodes Scholar

Anton Oliver lawyer, Tim Brown businessman and LSE graduate etc etc etc

Or Stephen Colbert, Catholic and completely reasonable human being... Sorry, what were we talking about?

Little known fact: Former Waikato Unicol striker Andrew Smith (late 80s) was also a Rhodes Scholar in 1989.

Is Chris Wood a scholar?

Must be very religious transferring to Burnley.

It varies from country to country.

In the UK generally professional footballers do not pursue tertiary education - it has a lot to do with the class system there where footballers have always been mostly working class. Plus the pressure to turn pro when very young.

There have always been exceptions though such as Graeme le Saux, the Chelsea and England defender who was taunted by opposition players and supporters as being gay, although he is heterosexual  - "le Saux attributed this to his lack of enthusiasm for the "typical" footballer's lifestyle, his university background, and the fact that he read a left-wing newspaper, the Guardian."

Steve Coppell completed an Economics degree while playing and now has masters degrees in Economics and History.

Iain Dowie has a masters in Aeronautical Engineering.

Former Wales and Everton midfielder Barry Horne has a first class degree in Chemistry and is a high school science teacher.

On the continent and in countries like the USA and NZ, the influence of traditional class stratification is weak and so you get more middle class footballers and footballers pursuing education. Most footballers in the Premier League with tertiary qualifications have been foreign players.

Gianluca Vialli has a history degree and is the son of a millionaire industrialist, "brought up with his 4 siblings in the 60 room Castello di Belgioioso in Cremona"

German international Oliver Bierhoff completed an Economics degree while playing.

Juan Mata has two degrees.

Shaka Hislop, former Premier League goalie and ESPN football pundit completed an engineering degree in his youth and interned at NASA.

Slaven Bilic has a masters degree in law.

Brazilian legend Socrates had both a medical degree and a PhD in philosophy.

Many players in our ISPS Handa Premiership have tertiary qualifications. Several of the current Canterbury United squad here in Christchurch have degrees - Gary Ogilvie, Sean Liddicoat, Francis de Vries, Juan Chang, Dan Terris (former England Universities football international). Assistant coach Joe Hall is completing post-grad studies in sports psychology at Canterbury University.

Article about why so few pro footballers in the UK are well-educated:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/why-a...

Wynton is now the official "Bundesliga Ambassador" for the Oceania region, one of a group of "Bundesliga Legends" from around the world chosen to promote the league:

Video and article:

https://www.bundesliga.com/en/news/Bundesliga/laun...

"To begin with, the "Bundesliga Legends Network" consists of nine ex-professionals whose popularity makes them ideal brand ambassadors for the Bundesliga in the key target markets of China (Jiayi Shao, Jörg Albertz), the USA (Steven Cherundolo), Mexico (Pavel Pardo), Ghana (Anthony Baffoe), Oceania (Wynton Rufer), South Korea (Bum-Kun Cha) and Brazil (Paulo Sergio). As faces of the Bundesliga, these ex-players will be making several appearances, for instance at fan and media events, as coaches at football camps, at CSR events or as experts in various shows of our partner broadcasters in order to boost the popularity of the Bundesliga globally, and especially in their respective homelands."

• The man known simply as "Kiwi" in his playing days is the most successful Bundesliga import from Oceania: Wynton Rufer (New Zealand) wore the green and white of SV Werder Bremen 174 times, averaging a goal almost every three games (59). His trophy haul comprised a German league title, two German Cups and triumph in the 1992 European Cup Winners’ Cup, to which he contributed a goal in the final against AS Monaco.
• 

There's also an entertaining recent German video interview with Wynton where he has to choose his favourites from a list of two aletrnatives put to him e.g. Auckland or Wellington? German Cup or Chatham Cup? Anderlecht or Napoli? (his two greatest European games). Part of a series interviewing Bremen's team of 1992 to celebrate 25 years since Bremen won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup

Well researched to include questions from his NZ background like the Chatham Cup:

Watch for videos and articles to celebrate 25 years since Bremen won the Bundesliga in 1993 this year.

His German is better than his English!!

Cool bit in this at around 11.30 where King Kapisi says that Wynton visited his Island Bay team and was a major inspiration for him as a kid: 

https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-...

New Zealand football icon Wynton Rufer has reportedly emerged from a coma after suffering a heart attack while riding a lime scooter on Sunday.

According to a source, ONE News report the 56-year-old was traveling on a lime scooter after attending the Breakers NBL match against the Perth Wildcats at Auckland's Spark Arena when he suffered the heart attack.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/football-soccer/news/ar...

That's terrible, Hope all goes well with him - such a nice guy.

Bloody hell those scooters seem to be cursed! Hope he pulls through and makes a full recovery!

Get well soon!

Had so much fun doing this interview a few years back - the tangents were just magic :)

OMG, that is an awesome interview!

Luckily that that passer-by stopped and rendered assistance like he did. Whether or not you like Rufer his playing record is still way up there and to be respected. I wish him a speedy recovery.

The irony is not lost though. Eats healthily, doesn't drink or smoke, exercises and has a heart attack. Half the YF are obese, drink, don't really exercise and are running on all cylinders.

Had an interview on Newshub last night about his thoughts on Rudan and the CCM game. Thankfully he looks as healthy as can be (apart from a little grey on the top!) Pleased to see a quick recovery and I wish the best for him in the future

Small interview he did with a German webby post heart attack and during the Nix/CCM game. Nothing too interesting mentioned in the article other than he helps scout for Werder Bremen.

Glad he's fine. 

Have read on here he can be a bit of a bible basher but not once during this experience have I seen him mention it 

I remember when he was coaching the Kingz and he brought them to Whakatane for an open training session. He sat all the kids down to talk to them. He was inspirational. He also talked to the kids as the players went through some shooting drills, describing the players, their skills and hyping the kids up to believe they could be the best in the world too. He was great.

Random question brought on by this, while I was in a bookshop today. Was an autobiography/biography about Wynton ever written?

No.  One was in the pipeline for a while (he mentioned it whenever asked) but it never happened.

In 2002 Wynton even brought 1994 Brazil World Cup winning captain Dunga out to coach kids in Otara.

He knew Dunga from playing in European competitions & in Germany at the same time in the early 1990's.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/soccer-a-helping-...

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/soccer-big-names-...

Wynton singled out for high praise playing for Bremen in the 1993-94 Champons League in this feature ranking the greatest Champions League games of all time.

Bremen vs.Anderlecht with Wynton running rampant ranked here as the ninth best Champions League match of all time:

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/ranked-25-best-ch...

9. Werder Bremen 5-3 Anderlecht

Group stage, 1993/94

With his side 3-0 down with 24 minutes to play against the Belgian champions, things weren’t looking too rosy for Bremen’s manager Otto Rehhagel. But he always believed, mainly because he had Wynton Rufer in his ranks. The New Zealander may not be a household name, but so impressed was Rehhagel with the forward’s technique in his first training session that the coach asked him: “Why aren’t you playing for Real Madrid?”

Rufer’s dinked 66th-minute effort offered hope; a Rune Bratseth header six minutes later, genuine belief. Panic duly infected Anderlecht’s rearguard, and the goal avalanche ended with Rufer’s second.

The Miracle of the Weser – the river which runs through Bremen – was born.

NOTE: Rufer finished the joint top goal-scorer in the Champions League 1993-94 season with Ronald Koeman (Barcelona): 8 goals