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Norwich City Blog Entry No 4 Battling against relegation can be a stressful
occupation for fans. So with that in mind I decided to take a break from
visiting Carrow Road and go in search of Wynton Rufer. So who is Wynton Rufer I hear you say? Those of you
with long memories might just remember the name and that will give you a
clue as to my whereabouts over the past three weeks. Wynton Rufer is arguably the greatest footballer ever
produced by New Zealand. Now I know that he’s not in the same class as
Pele, Beckenbauer, Charlton or hundreds of other great players over the
ages, but I can tell you that in New Zealand he is a big deal. For some reason his name has always stuck in my
memory. It was back in 1981 that the Canaries tried to sign Rufer. For
some inexplicable reason the Kiwi was refused a work permit and so never
actually played for Norwich. In today’s climate of open season for signing
continental players, it seems strange that a player from a Commonwealth
country was refused the right to play for his chosen club. Obviously they
didn’t have the same rules in Switzerland, Germany or Japan as Rufer
went on to have an illustrious career with Grasshoppers of Zurich, Werder
Bremen, Kaiserslauten and JEF United in Japan to name but a few. Twice he was leading scorer for Werder Bremen, was
voted player of the season three times and also won the Bundesliga Best
Foreign Player award and scored the winner for Werder in the 1992 Cup
Winners Cup Final. In his spare time he helped Werder to the German Cup
and Bundesliga title. He also played for New Zealand, scoring 17 goals in
38 games and appearing in the 1982 World Cup Finals. He was Oceania
Footballer of the Year on three occasions and named Oceania’s Footballer
of the Century – which let’s face it isn’t a bad CV. So as far as Norwich City were concerned Rufer was
definitely “the one that got away”. Obviously I never tracked him down personally (time
and a hectic touring schedule prevented that) but I did find out that
he’s the only soccer player to have been inducted into the New Zealand
sporting hall of fame in Dunedin and is now highly regarded as a coach of
young players. So perhaps some time in the not too distant future Carrow
Road will see a Kiwi kid playing – and this time a work permit
shouldn’t be a problem! I was amazed at the country’s knowledge of
Championship football. Just to the side of the Dunedin Hall of Fame was a
farmers’ market where the man running the cheese stall asked us where we
came from in England. “Norwich on the eastern side,” we replied. “Oh yes. They used to have a really good football
team, but they’re only in the championship now. I think they have seen
better days,” was his unprompted reply. I couldn’t work out at first why he had immediately
brought the subject of football up and then realised it might have had
something to do with the “Kevin Keelan Legends T-Shirt” I was wearing. It was sobering to know that 13,000 miles from home
was a man selling cheese who felt the same as us all – that Norwich have
indeed had better days. So Norwich City are now a global brand (Andrew Cullam
will be pleased to hear about that no doubt). Soccer fans over there
apparently regularly watch Championship highlights and are well aware of
the teams and of course the famous people attached to them. “Ah yes they have that chef working for them,”
was one comment we received. “Isn’t her name Della or something,” was
another. Travelling around New Zealand really mucks up the
time clock. They are 13 hours ahead of us which meant working out when
matches were being played a tricky science. A 3 p.m kick off at Carrow
Road would be 4 a.m in the morning to us. So whilst the lads laboured we
slept ready for another stressful day being photographed holding up a copy
of the Pink-Un in a pathetic attempt to gain some personal publicity from
the esteemed local sports paper. I still managed to get the results via text and the
internet and while we were away Norwich notched a reasonable six points
from their four matches. Those performances really summed up the
improvement the team has made and where we are at now. Under Peter Grant
we were a dead team walking. Now we are a reasonable middle of the table
side. The question is can we up our game in time for next season? I would love to go back to Dunedin in a few years
time, find the cheeseman, tell him where I come from and hear him say: “Ah yes Norwich – they are one of the best teams in England.” Wouldn’t that be something?
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