426: Brian Turner and Wynton Rufer, New Zealand, Panini Espana 82 World Cup Sticker Album

With Christmas around the corner we bring tidings of great joy to all fans of obscure football nostalgia. Thanks to Bill Fernley for this suggestion which he freely admits to picking in part for its obscurity but also due to the fact the second player on show today somehow flies under the radar despite being nominated as the Oceania Football Confederation’s ‘Footballer of the Century’. In the spirit of the season, and partly because we struggled to find any other stickers, we’ll throw in some stuff about his New Zealand team mate for good measure. Hope you enjoy Bill.

When you think of New Zealand there are a range of things that spring to mind. Perhaps first is their exceptional rugby teams who have thrilled and dominated the sport for years and produced some it the greatest players in both the men’s and women’s games. You might think of their cricketing stars who won the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in 2021 and have reached the finals of the last two major men’s limited overs tournaments. Moving away from sport you might think of the nation’s beautiful landscape showcased in Kiwi director Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy or perhaps the impressively competent leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the Covid-19 pandemic. You might well be a fan of the country’s fourth most popular folk duo Flight of the Conchords. However, unless you are a Burnley fan, you might not know too much about their football team.

At the 1982 FIFA World Cup the All Whites made their debut and found themselves in a group with the mighty Brazil, a strong Soviet Union and everyone’s favourite major tournament underachievers Scotland. They departed Spain having conceded twelve goals and lost all three of their games but at least they acquitted themselves slightly better than El Salvador who let in thirteen, scored one and were the victims of a 10-1 shellacking at the hands of Hungary. The tournament was a big moment, however, for the two men pictured below. Brian Turner announced his international retirement after scoring 21 goals in 59 appearances while Wynton Rufer, at the tender age of nineteen, would be on his way to a remarkable career in European club football.

Brian Turner was born in the infamous New Zealand heartlands of East Ham but emigrated at a young age and began his career with Ponsonby in Auckland in 1966. It wouldn’t be long before he returned to England with Chelsea in 1968. He failed to make a first team appearance at Stamford Bridge and, after a short spell at Portsmouth, he moved on to Brentford. In two and a half years at Griffin Park he made nearly a hundred appearances and scored seven goals before heading back to New Zealand with Mount Wellington where he spent eight seasons. Four National League championships and two Chatham Cups were instrumental in Turner being named as New Zealand’s Player of the Year on three occasions in 1974, 1979 and 1980. After a short spell in Australia he ended his career in New Zealand in 1988 and moved into coaching with several sides and was assistant coach when the All Whites made their second appearance at the FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010. 

For all of Turner’s impressive achievements these would soon be dwarfed by his international teammate Wynton Rufer. In true Championship Manager style the striker was denied a work permit after signing for Norwich City in 1981 and, just before his World Cup exploits, moved to Swiss giants FC Zurich in May 1982. In five seasons he scored 57 goals in 136 appearances before moving on to FC Aarau. His 30 goals in 55 games helped the side to an impressive fourth place finish and attracted the attention of Grasshopper Zurich where he won the Swiss Cup in his solitary season and netted 18 more goals to bring up his century after eight campaigns in Switzerland. Not bad for a man yet to get into his thirties although his international career stalled somewhat due to his paymasters’ reluctance to release him for fixtures.

Despite the lack of opportunities to smash goals past Chinese Taipei in the All Whites failed attempt to reach Italia ’90 Rufer was making waves across the Swiss border after joining German side Werder Bremen. In three consecutive seasons he scored nigh on twenty goals and helped Bremen to a DFB-Pokal in 1991 and gained access to the greatest of all tournaments the Cup Winners’ Cup. Not content with qualifying Bremen won the 1991/92 edition of the tournament with Rufer netting in the final against AS Monaco and followed this triumph by winning the Bundesliga in the following year. Rufer scored a phenomenal 27 goals in just 42 games in all competitions and followed this up with 24 in 50 as Bremen picked up another domestic cup and DFB-Supercup in 1993/94. After a much quieter campaign he departed for Japan where he scored an impressive 38 goals in 54 games across two seasons for JEF United. After one last jaunt in Germany, where he helped Kaiserslautern gain promotion from 2. Bundesliga, Rufer saw out the remainder of his career back in New Zealand with Central United, North Shore United and Auckland Kingz, where he acted as player-manager, before retiring at the age of 40 in 2002. In total he managed 276 goals in 620 games across three continents and it’s hardly a surprise he was named as Oceania’s ‘Footballer of the Century’.

When their Antipodean neighbours transferred from the Oceania Football Confederation to the Asian Football Confederation in 2006 it left New Zealand as the dominant footballing force in the continent. Sadly this does not guarantee the All Whites a place in the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and, should they top their qualifying group, an intercontinental play-off stands between them and the finals tournament. As things stand the qualification process is yet to begin due to the ongoing Covid-19 enforced delays but once the ball is literally and metaphorically rolling the Kiwis will be favourites to reach their third global tournament. If all goes well the likes of Chris Wood and Winston Reid might find themselves the subject of a footballing nostalgia blog sometime in the 2060s.