William MacDonald Rutherford (19 January 1945 – 24 October 2010) was an Australian
soccer player.
Playing career
Club career
Rutherford played youth football for Methil before signing with
East Fife where he made 27 league appearances, scoring 11 goals.
In the late 1960s he moved to
Forfar Athletic where he made only five appearances before emigrating to Australia.
Arriving in Australia in 1968, Rutherford joined Sydney Hakoah, where he played in several stints until the mid-1970s. He also played in Hong Kong during the Australian off-season.
While playing for Hakoah, he represented the state of
New South Wales
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, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
three times. During his time with the club he was noted as a ''mercurial, unpredictable but undeniably brilliant'' player, rated by some as ''Sydney’s most valuable forward...''.
Rutherford was a very fast runner who took up professional running with some success in the 1970s.
International career
Rutherford played six times for the
Australia national team. All of his matches were played in 1969 during Australia's failed qualification for the
1970 FIFA World Cup.
Outside Football
A building industry supervisor, Rutherford married once and later divorced. He and his former wife had one son.
References
External links
*
''Vale Willie Rutherford''-
Football Federation Australia
Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...
obituary - published 27 October 2010
1945 births
2010 deaths
Australian men's soccer players
Australia men's international soccer players
East Fife F.C. players
Forfar Athletic F.C. players
Scottish Football League players
Footballers from Lochgelly
Scottish emigrants to Australia
Footballers from Fife
Men's association football forwards
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