Atli Eðvaldsson (3 March 1957 – 2 September 2019) was an Icelandic professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, widely regarded as one of the most influential players to come from Iceland. During his career, he won the Icelandic championship three times and the Icelandic Cup four times. After retiring from playing, he became a well-known manager. In 1999, he guided Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur to its first championship in 31 years. Atli played 70 games for the Icelandic national team from 1976 to 1991. He later coached the national team from 1999 to 2003.

Club career

Atli started at

Valur Valur may refer to: People * Birkir Valur Jónsson (born 1998), Icelandic football player * Björn Valur Gíslason (born 1959), Icelandic politician * Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson (born 1979), Icelandic handball player * Guðni Valur Guðnason (born ...

and later became very successful in the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

with Fortuna Düsseldorf and Bayer Uerdingen. On 6 June 1983, he became the first foreign player to score a five goals in one game in the Bundesliga, when he scored five goals for Fortuna Düsseldorf in a 5–1 victory against

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

. Straight after the game, he and teammate Pétur Ormslev, where flown to Iceland where Atli scored the winning goal in Iceland's 1–0 victory against

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

the following day. For the season, he scored 21 goals in 34 matches for Düsseldorf, finishing second in the league. After a year in Turkey, he finished his playing career back in Iceland, where he became player-manager.

International career

He made his debut for

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

in 1976 and went on to win 70 caps, scoring eight goals and captaining the team 31 times. He played his last international match in a September 1991 friendly game against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. After

Ásgeir Elíasson Ásgeir Elíasson (22 November 1949 – 9 September 2007) was a football manager and coach of the Iceland national football team between 1991 and 1995. He was manager of Fram Reykjavik Fram may refer to: Ships * ''Fram'' (ship), an arcti ...

became Iceland's manager in 1991, he announced that Atli was not in the future plans of the team. At the time he was Iceland's record cap.

Managerial career

After his playing days ended, Atli went on to manage three Icelandic club teams before taking the helm at the national team in 1999 where he stayed for four years. On 4 July 2009, Atli was appointed manager of Úrvalsdeild karla club

until the end of the season. He last coached

Hamar Hamar is a List of cities in Norway, town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet Counties of Norway, county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hedmarken. ...

in the

4. deild karla 4. deild karla (e. Men's fourth division) is a Association football, football league in Iceland. It is the fifth and second-lowest division in the Icelandic football league system. Format The division was added to the Icelandic football league ...

in 2018.

Roger Hollis case

Chapman Pincher Henry Chapman Pincher (29 March 1914 – 5 August 2014) was an English journalist, historian and novelist whose writing mainly focused on espionage and related matters, after some early books on scientific subjects. Early life Pincher was born ...

alleged that Atli was the owner of certain documents that might add further weight to the case against Roger Hollis, that Hollis was a Russian spy at the head of MI-5 in the UK. As Pincher, who died in 2014, stated "I have been unable to extract a copy of the interrogation report from Atli", p. 603. The interrogation report was alleged by Pincher to have been written by his deceased father,

Evald Mikson Evald Mikson ( is, Eðvald Hinriksson), ( – 27 December 1993) was a goalkeeper in the Estonian national football team, winning seven caps between 1934 and 1938. Mikson played a controversial role as a collaborator during his service in the ...

Personal life

Atli was the younger brother of former international player Jóhannes Eðvaldsson. His father,

(Icelandic: Eðvald Hinriksson), was a goalkeeper in the

Estonian national football team The Estonia national football team ( et, Eesti jalgpallikoondis) represents Estonia in international football matches and is controlled by the Estonian Football Association, the governing body for football in Estonia. Estonia's home ground is ...

between 1934 and 1938. Evald was the

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

chief of police during the German occupation of Estonia during World War II. Atli's daughter

Sif Atladóttir Sif Atladóttir (born 15 July 1985) is an Icelanders, Icelandic Association football, footballer and a member of the Iceland women's national football team, Iceland women's national team. Prior to playing professionally abroad, she won the Úrv ...

is a member of the women's national football team.

Illness and death

In December 2018, he revealed in an interview with

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) (pronounced or ) ( en, 'The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service') is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization. Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional cent ...

that he had been battling a serious illness for two years and that initially the doctors only gave him two weeks to live. On 2 September 2019, Atli died from cancer.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edvaldsson, Atli 1957 births 2019 deaths Atli Edvaldsson Men's association football midfielders Atli Edvaldsson Atli Edvaldsson Borussia Dortmund players KFC Uerdingen 05 players Fortuna Düsseldorf players Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Atli Edvaldsson Bundesliga players Süper Lig players Atli Edvaldsson Atli Edvaldsson Atli Edvaldsson Atli Edvaldsson Atli Edvaldsson TuRU Düsseldorf players Atli Edvaldsson Atli Edvaldsson Atli Edvaldsson Atli Edvaldsson Atli Edvaldsson Expatriate men's footballers in West Germany Atli Edvaldsson Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey