Gylfi Sigurdsson and Tottenham’s Icelandic Players

Tottenham’s new signing, Gylfi Sigurdsson, will be the third Icelandic international to play for the club. he is twenty one years of age and has played for his country on x occasions scoring once. The other two Icelandic players were Gudni Bergsson in the early 1990s and more recently

Gudni Bergsson

Bergsson joined Spurs on trial as an amateur in November, 1988. He was a law student and signed professional the following February, costing Spurs £100,000 to his former club, Valur.  An Icelandic international he had his best spell at Spurs under Terry Venables although he missed out on the 1991 FA Cup Final. He made 72 League appearances for Spurs, scoring twice.  He played at full back or in central defence but found it difficult to gain a regular place in the team, often stepping in when others were injured.  He was released by Spurs and considered returning to his law studies but Bolton stepped in and agreed a deal with Spurs for £65,000.

Bergsson joined Bolton in March, 1995, helping them to promotion and in eight seasons he made over 300 League and Cup appearances. The following December, Bergsson played his part in denying Spurs the opportunity to move into second place in the League by scoring an equalising goal as Bolton recovered from a two goal deficit to earn their first away point of the season. Bolton had lost nine away games in succession and Spurs had secured a two goal lead with second half strikes from Chris Amstrong and Teddy Sheringham. A distraction was created when former player Nayim was shown on the big screen.  The crowd chanted ‘Nayim from the halfway line’ in recognition of his goal in the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final over Arsenal.  Spurs lost concentration and conceded two goals in three minutes with the equalising goal scored by their former player, Bergsson.

After retiring from football, Bergsson returned to Iceland and qualified as a lawyer. He recently made the headlines when he was stabbed in the leg when coming to the aid of a colleague in his firm’s offices in Reykjavik.

Bergsson made 80 appearances for his country scoring one goal.

Eidur Gudjohnsen

Gudjohnsen is a player who was frequently throughout his career linked with Tottenham but a transfer didn’t materialise until January, 2010 when at the age of 32 years, he joined the club on loan from Monaco until the end of the season. When he came to England in 1998 from Iceland, his first club was Bolton Wanderers where he played for two years. He then spent six seasons with Chelsea before moving to Barcelona, winning many honours at both clubs. After three years there he joined Monaco in the summer of 2009.

Gudjohnsen made twelve appearances for Spurs, scoring once, at Stoke City in March, 2010.

He left Tottenham and joined Stoke City but moved on to Fulham after six months. he joined AEK Athens in July, 2011, signing a two year contract.

Emil Hallfredsson

Hallfredsson is one further Icelandic international with Icelandic connections. He joined Spurs as a young player, brought in by Frank Arnesen in December, 2004. He spent two years at White Hart Lane and was a regular in the reserves but didn’t make any first team appearances. He went on loan to Malmo who tried to persuade him to stay but he returned to Spurs but was unable to break in to the first team. He joined Lyn Oslo in the summer of 2007 but after only one match moved on to Reggina in Italy. He has made 29 appearances for Iceland and currently plays for Verona.