He won the Bundesliga. The Cup Winners' Cup. And a Champions League Golden Boot. And he also earned the admiration of Franz Beckenbauer and Diego Maradona along the way. Wynton Rufer is legend and... a Kiwi.

New Zealand have their rugby players. Their golfers and cricketers. But no athlete from the island nation can lay claim to defying the odds as Rufer did during his footballing career. Winning titles with Werder. Attracting offers from Inter and AC Milan. Rufer, in terms of NZ sport, is a one-off. A testimony to his achievements is that no footballer produced by NZ has come close to the impact Rufer made in Europe. And that's both before and after the former striker's career.

It was with Werder, under the charismatic Otto Rehhagel, that Rufer made his name. A Bundesliga title, two German Cups and victory in the Cup Winners' Cup final against Arsene Wenger's AS Monaco, all achieved by Werder thanks to a dynamic, free-scoring Kiwi leading their line.

“It was the best experience by far playing with Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga," Rufer tells Tribalfootball.com enthusiastically, "every year we played in Europe. I was proud to have played in a very successful team."

Indeed, it was a golden era for Werder, perhaps the club's greatest period, with Rufer in attack and the wily Rehhagel managing from the bench.

"The coaching guidance of Otto Rehhagel helped me a lot. Even today I have an excellent relationship with him and I have wonderful memories from Germany," adds Rufer.

And German football has wonderful memories of the Kiwi. The forward from the other side of the world making such an impact that Franz Beckenbauer, then Germany's World Cup coach, famously lamented being unable to take Rufer to Italia 90 - a tournament which Die Mannshaft would win.

Rufer recalls, “It was very nice to know and to hear these lovely comments made for me by important figures in the football world. When this type of comment came from Beckenbauer I valued it very much.

"Another important figure who has made lovely comments about me is of course Otto Rehhagel. When they asked him who was the best player he'd ever coached his answer was 'Wynton Rufer'!

"It still makes me very happy when I hear these people and their ideas about me."

Another fan of Rufer's was the late Diego Maradona. The pair famously crossed swords in the UEFA Cup, with Rufer scoring home and away as Werder stunned Napoli 8:3 on aggregate.

"We played against him in the quarter-final of the UEFA Cup and at that time he was the best player in the world. We played two very good matches against them, in Naples we won 3-2 and I scored the winning goal at the end and two weeks later in Bremen, we won 5-1."

Maradona would later remark how impressed he'd been by Werder and their nimble striker up front.

"As I mentioned, he was the best player in the world. We as a team did a good job to cancel him out during our matches and to win. Of course, I swapped shirts with him. I am lucky to still have it."

That performance would bring Rufer to the attention of Serie A clubs, then the most powerful in Europe. AC Milan and Inter were among the giants to express interest at the time. By his own admission, Rufer had plenty of chances to leave Werder for Italy.

"I received many offers to play in Serie A in Italy," he says. "(Looking back) I would love to have played there also because of the language. I love the Italian language.

"At that time Serie A was the best league in Europe."

Drawing the attention of the great managers of the day, Rufer became known as a striker capable of breaching the best defences. It was a reputation that would be fortified with the Champions League Golden Boot for season 1993/94.

“Yeah, being the Champions League top goal scorer I remember very well," Rufer recalls. "The goals I scored against AC Milan, Anderlecht and Porto, I still remember them today.

"Another match I remember is when we won the Cup Winners' Cup against Monaco and their coach was Arsene Wenger. In that final, we won 2-0 and I scored one goal and assisted the other."

With all that success. All those experiences. Rufer is today again defying the odds with his own football academy at home in New Zealand. Now 60, Rufer happily reports his and his coaching staff's work are producing incredible results.

"Now I will be honest with you," he begins, "I think that the New Zealand Football Federation has not done a good job with developing the football players in our country, we saw it also now with the Womens World Cup. We should have easily qualified for the second round, we had every stadium sold out and everybody in New Zealand was supporting them and we didn't get through.

"Despite this, they gave the New Zealand football coach a new four-year contract - that's ridiculous. Still, this situation has been going on for 25 years and nothing has changed."

Rufer continued: "With developing players they also haven't done a good job. On a personal note, I can say that four girls from the New Zealand team came from my academy.

"New Zealand hasn't understood how to work and develop young players, we don't have a great culture for football like in Europe, South America, etc. We have to work with the youngest players otherwise they're recruited by rugby."

But that hasn't meant Rufer throwing in the towel. Instead, he's still making his own contribution - in a significant way - to keep New Zealand's talent alive.

He adds: "The two most famous players right now from New Zealand are Chris Wood who plays for (Nottingham) Forest in the UK and Sarpreet Singh who signed a contract with the German club Rostock (from Bayern Munich). Both of these players came from my academy.

"I can say in the end that I have done my little bit to help the football in my country."