Iceland review - 2016, Page 34

32 ICELAND REVIEW
It’s a good feeling—we had good
results and reached our goals—but
there’s also a bit of stress. We’ve
been through all the emotions and these
last few weeks have been a great adven-
ture. But I know it’s going to be difficult
to motivate the players, the supporters
and the staff, to restart everything again
after taking a break,” says coach of the
Icelandic men’s football team, Heimir
Hallgrímsson. We meet at the nation-
al stadium in Reykjavík in mid-July, a
couple of weeks after the team returned
home from the UEFA European
Championship (Euro 2016) in France.
Heimir worked alongside Lars
Lagerbäck, first as his assistant coach
for two years and the last two-and-a-
half years as a joint coach until Lars’
departure following the competition.
Lars joined the Icelandic team in 2011
in the lead-up to the 2014 World Cup
qualification and has been largely credit-
ed for the team’s success since. According
to Heimir, Lars brought a clear vision
and model of how to work, something
which did not exist before. Over the last
four-and-a-half years, Iceland has made
it to the 2014 World Cup playoffs and
Coach of the Icelandic men’s football team Heimir Hallgrímsson
speaks to Zoë Robert about the team’s success at the UEFA
European Championship in July, the international spotlight,
surprising support from around the world and
the road ahead to the World Cup.
to the quarter finals of Euro 2016, as
well as shooting from 131st up to 22nd
in the FIFA rankings. While Lars has
returned to his home country of Sweden
to work as a consultant for the national
team there, Heimir will continue as head
coach for Iceland and will be assisted by
Helgi Kolviðsson.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The Icelandic national team made its
major tournament debut at Euro 2016,
becoming the smallest nation in his-
tory to qualify for the competition.
Iceland went on to make it all the way
to the quarter finals, earning respect
from around the world along the way.
The Icelandic supporters’ ‘Viking Clap’
chant (also called the ‘Huh!’) went viral
and the country became the subject of
intense media interest. “Everything that
was written about Iceland, all this good
coverage about the Icelandic players, the
supporters, the country, the nature, and
the people in general... just how Iceland
and Icelandic football is spoken about—
at least in my circles—is incredibly posi-
tive,” says Heimir.
CELEBRATING
SOCCER SUCCESS
The impact of Iceland’s participation
at the tournament far exceeded expec-
tations, he adds. “We knew that just by
going, Icelandic football and Icelandic
players would increase in value—not just
those who played. Many Icelandic play-
ers have, as a result, gone to better teams
and will likely get better salaries at bigger
clubs. Icelandic referees are also getting a
lot of work right now just because they’re
from Iceland, they’re benefiting from
the fact that the Icelandic team went.
What we perhaps did not expect was that
Iceland itself would increase in value,
that it would be such a good advertise-
ment for the country, too,” he explains.
Around 30,000 Icelanders—or close
to 10 percent of the nation—traveled
to France to support the national team.
The rest of the population—football fans
or not—followed strákarnir okkar (‘our
boys’) from home; some workplaces even
closed early so people wouldn’t miss the
games.
FOOTBALL FEVER
Iceland caught the attention of the
world when it marked its debut with a