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View from Iceland: Heimir Hallgrímsson’s achievements reveal a will to win that is second to none

New Ireland coach’s teams are well drilled and play to a style he tailors to the players available

Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson during the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Moscow. Photograph: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images
Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson during the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Moscow. Photograph: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images
Víðir Sigurðsson
Thu Jul 11 2024 - 11:10

Born and bred on Heimaey in the Vestmann Islands off the Icelandic south shore, Heimir Hallgrímsson had to flee his hometown with his family in 1973, at only five years of age, when a volcanic eruption forced the 5,000 inhabitants to leave the island and stay on the mainland for six months or more.

Hallgrímsson’s family soon moved back to Heimaey, where he learned and played his football for local team IBV, playing for the first team from 1986 to 1996, with five of those being full seasons in the premier league.

In 1993, though, he took a one-year leave from his home club when he captained Höttur from Egilsstadir to winning the fourth division championship. At the same time, while still just 26 years old, he coached the club’s women’s team to promotion to the premier league.

In 1999, Hallgrímsson took over as coach of the IBV women’s team and left them in 2004 after winning their first big title, the Icelandic cup.

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In 2002 he took over the IBV men’s team for a short period but later steered them from 2006 to 2011, winning the first division title in 2008 and then finishing third in the premier league in 2010 and 2011.

His adventure with the Icelandic national team started in December 2011 when he was hired as assistant coach of the Icelandic men’s national team, becoming the assistant of Swede Lars Lagerbäck. That was the beginning of Iceland’s biggest football adventure.

Iceland coaches Heimir Hallgrímsson and Lars Lagerbäck watch a training session at the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice in 2016. Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images
Iceland coaches Heimir Hallgrímsson and Lars Lagerbäck watch a training session at the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice in 2016. Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images

The duo revitalised the Icelandic team, which started the 2014 World Cup qualifying group as the sixth and lowest-ranked team in the group but surprisingly finished second and only missed out on tickets to the World Cup in Brazil after two tight play-off matches against mighty Croatia.

In 2014 Hallgrímsson took a step upwards, and he and Lagerbäck were joint coaches of the team for the next two years.

The rest is history. Iceland qualified for the 2016 Euros in France and surprised everyone by reaching the last eight after drawing against Portugal, the eventual winners, and Hungary, and beating Austria and then sensationally knocking England out in the last 16 in Nice. They finally lost out to France in the quarter-finals.

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has appointed Heimir Hallgrímsson as the new head coach of its men’s team.

Hallgrímsson took over as the sole coach of the team after Lagerbäck bowed out of the job following the success in France. If anyone thought he could not do better on his own, that was an illusion.

Iceland surprised even more people by winning their World Cup 2018 qualifying group, ahead of big nations Croatia, Ukraine and Turkey. Winning that group convincingly is probably Iceland’s best achievement in international football. They won seven out of 10 matches, conceded only seven goals and beat Turkey 3-0 away.

Leading a nation of 370,000 people to the World Cup finals is an achievement almost beyond imagination.

Iceland drew against 1-1 against Argentina in their first match at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where goalkeeper Hannes Halldórsson famously saved Lionel Messi’s penalty. Then the team lost to Nigeria and Croatia, and their first World Cup adventure was over.

Iceland's coach Heimir Hallgrímsson and his players celebrate after the Euro 2016 game against England. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images
Iceland's coach Heimir Hallgrímsson and his players celebrate after the Euro 2016 game against England. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images

Hallgrímsson quit the national team after Russia, desiring to coach a club team again. In December 2018 he took over as head coach of Qatar’s Al-Arabi and finished his contract there in the summer 2021.

In September 2022 he took over as national coach of Jamaica, with a contract running to 2026. But after good results he resigned after the Copa America in July where Jamaica lost all three matches.

Hallgrímsson is without doubt Iceland’s most popular coach after his achievements with the national team. He is a charming and honest man, well liked wherever he goes. He is very dedicated to his sport, not only at top level but very enthusiastic about the grassroots and building up of players and teams.

His will to win is second to none. With Iceland he built up a certain work ethic that suited that team, and obviously he learned a lot from Lagerbäck during their time together with the team. His teams are well drilled, do all the basic things correctly, and he is clever in finding out what kind of football suits the players he has got.

Famously, Hallgrímsson is a qualified dentist and has always run his clinic on Heimaey besides coaching in different parts of the world. But questions about his second job are the only questions he hates to answer at press meetings.

Víðir Sigurðsson is sports editor of Icelandic daily newspaper Morgunblaðið