Two years ago we were the smallest nation to join the European Championship. But we did not stop there cause now Iceland is the smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup! The entire population of Iceland is slightly over 330.000 but our football team is now 22nd on FIFA world ranking list. We used to be in 19th place on the list!
Jón Daði Böðvarsson comes from the small town of Selfoss on the South Coast. When he was playing in Stavanger in Norway he was chosen the Sportsman of the year in his county back home, Árborg. He used the prize money to start a fund for kids who want to play football but can’t afford it. The fund is called “Knattspyrna fyrir alla” or Soccer for everyone!
Heimir Hallgrímsson the team’s coach is actually a dentist and lives in the beautiful islands of Vestmannaeyjar. He actually needs to fly or take a boat to get to Reykjavík! Iceland is not big enough for us to run and pay him for a full-time job. A lot of the players on the team have other jobs.
Players do different things to get ready for games but one of them was directing a commercial for Coca-Cola in Iceland right before departure. This was no one else than our goalkeeper Hannes Þór Halldórsson. The one that saved the goal from Messi.
Here you can see his work:
