Reykjavík Grapevine - 31.07.2015, Blaðsíða 23

Reykjavík Grapevine - 31.07.2015, Blaðsíða 23
23The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 11 — 2015 hard to be a supporter of Fram, I would say. All my life, the team has been struggling—saving their asses for a few years, then being relegated, and coming back, and doing the same thing over again.” Loji now plays football in a Sun- day league team made up of fellow musicians. “The team has people like Gunnar from Grísalappalísa, Sindri from Sin Fang, Örvar from múm, a lot of artists,” he explains. “Einar Þór from Singapore Sling is the heart and soul of the team. Högni from Hjal- talín plays for us, too. He’s a great finisher, I would say!” The team plays in the Gull league, sponsored by the Icelandic beer, and features all kinds of teams. “Some- times the other teams are made up of a group of friends,” says Loji. “But sometimes they’re people from Dom- ino’s pizza or something. It’s nice— competitive, but fun and relaxed. We get on a good run now and then and win two or three games. Other times not so much. But I have a really good feeling about this summer!” The Veteran Pétur Marteinsson also started play- ing at Fram. He’s a well-known pro- fessional footballer in Iceland, now retired after a career as a defender that took him to clubs in Sweden, Norway and England, and saw him win 35 caps with the Iceland nation- al side. “I grew up in Breiðholt,” says Pé- tur, “so I started playing at the club Leiknir, aged six. I cried, and said 'But my dad played for Fram!' until I got to go and practice there.” He started taking the half-hour bus ride to the club’s ground three times a week. “Most of the practices were on gravel,” he remembers. “There was no astroturf at that time. We were tackling in training, and we’d get bloody. Not a single kid today would train in those conditions, but back then it was just part of the game — it was all about the tough vikings going out to play.” Pétur advanced through the youth system until he was spotted playing for Iceland during an un- der-21 friendly match against Swe- den, where he was named man of the match. The resulting attention ended up with him signing a two-year con- tract with Swedish side Hammarby, and postponing his enrolment in a pre-med course at Berkeley in the US. “I was just playing because it was fun,” Pétur smiles. “I didn’t have any grand ambitions. But when I got the call to try out as a professional play- er, I didn’t hesitate. It was a 'Sliding Doors' moment—choosing to be a footballer in Stockholm or a doctor in the States.” Now a successful businessman, Pétur still follows the game closely. He’s watched with interest as the Iceland national team has risen in the rankings over recent years, and offers various insights as to the rea- sons for their gradual improvement. “Our current national team is not just a f luke,” he says. “It’s not some- thing that just happened. It’s been a ride. Back in 1998, Gylfi and Kolbe- inn and the rest of the national team were eight, nine, ten years old. They saw Iceland play France after they’d just won the World Cup, and draw 1-1, and they thought: ‘We can do this.’ Even those playing in ‘98 had their role models—Ásgeir Sigvinsson, who was one of the best players in Eu- rope, and Arnór Guðjohnsen, who was a really good international player. When I was little I thought, ‘These guys are heroes! I would love to be like them!’ And today, hopefully we’re seeing the re- sult.” The Superstar One such role model is Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen. Now aged 36, Eiður’s illustrious career has seen him play for some Europe’s biggest clubs, in- cluding stints at Chelsea in the UK, and Barcelona, for whom he was the first Icelander to appear in the UEFA Champions League finals. Eiður recently moved to Chi- na, signing for Shijiazhuang Ever Bright. “I’ve been here for just under a month now,” he says, over a crack- ling phone line. “It’s not something I ever anticipated, to play in China! But when it came up, it was a very in- teresting opportunity. It’s a different world out here—the further you get from Shanghai and Beijing, the less people speak English. We interna- tional players have a translator with us—they’re doing everything they can to help us settle in.” Eiður is a former Iceland captain, and holds the honour of being the nation’s all-time highest goal scorer, netting 25 times in 79 appearances. He’s seen the team’s fortunes f luc- tuate over the years. “We fell out of the top 100 in the international team rankings at one point,” he says. “It was a low point. But now we’re 23rd. When you have good results and a good run of form, you climb steadily, and we’ve been doing that for a few years.” “The major- ity of the players in the current national team are... I hesitate to use the phrase, but you could say they’re a golden gen- eration,” he continues. “They’re the first Icelandic players to make the Under-21 European Championship finals. They’ve been together for a long time. They’re also the first generation coming through since Iceland got indoor pitches—they’ve been ready to play abroad younger, and gather that experience. And they also have an experienced manager in Lars Lagarbäck. It’s the combination we’ve been waiting for.” Eiður thinks the current team has every chance of being the first men’s team to break through into the European Championship finals, and are perhaps paving the way for the future. “I hope that this team has set some role models for the younger generations to come,” he says. “Every boy dreams about playing in a Euro- pean Championship or a World Cup. Maybe now they’ll realise it doesn’t have to stay a dream.” The Players 1 Kolbeinn Theodórsson, Víkingur youth team player 2 Sigurbjörn Örn “Bjossi” Hreiðarsson, Valur Assistant Coach 3 Haukur Páll Sigurðsson, Valur Club Captain 4 Pétur Marteinsson, retired footballer & business- man 5 Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, Iceland captain and FC Rosengård player 6 Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen, Iceland and Shijiazhuang Ever Bright player 7 Fanndís Friðriksdóttir, Kolbotn IL and Iceland player 8 Loji Höskuldsson, musician and Sunday League player 9 Alexander Júlíusson, Valur Stadium Manager “Most of the play- ing surface died last spring. It happened to stadiums all over Reykjavík. The grass died and rotted under the ice.” 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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