Iceland review - 2015, Page 54

52 ICELAND REVIEW
of Schleswig-Holstein, with approximately
the same population as Iceland, around
300,000. It seemed like everybody was
dressed in white and black, the kiel team
colors, and on their way to see the game.
The arena is the second-largest in
Germany, seating more than 10,000. It’s
always sold out when kiel is playing. aron
pálmarsson, the team’s playmaker, and one
of Iceland’s supreme players, tells me the
day after the game: “I think they could
double the capacity of the arena, the inter-
est in handball is so great here in kiel. The
season tickets are gone in a day, it’s a fam-
ily sport to go together to see a winning
match. It goes back decades; handball is
very big here in North Germany, even big-
ger than football.”
First winning the German Cup 57 years
ago, in 1957, kiel has been crowned nation-
al champion a record 19 times—more often
than any other German team. The last few
years have been kiel’s best: they’ve won the
title six times in the last seven years since alfreð took
over, in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014. In
2012 the team became the first in German sporting
history—in any sport—to win every single one of its
games in the national Bundesliga, the German Cup
and the European Champions league.
When I ask alfreð the day after the game if he
doesn’t feel enormous pressure to coach a big, suc-
cessful club like kiel, he says without hesitation: “It’s
just work, I don’t have to prove anything. It just takes
one winning game at a time. I will be here a few more
years; I don’t remember when my contract runs out,
in 2018 or 19.”
aron, who is only 24, is playing his fifth and
last season for kiel. “I needed a change, new chal-
lenges. I told my agent that I didn’t want to play with
another German team. I chose MkB Veszprém, the
Hungarian champions, and the most successful team
in the country; they’ve been Hungarian champions 22
times. They have very big ambitions; want to win the
[European] Champions league next year. It’s a world-
class club. I chose them instead of paris. paris is big-
ger and a better city to live and play in, but the future
SPort
alfreð gíslason in a good mood, the day after the game. aron deep in thought, leaving the arena at half-time.