Einar Örn Birgisson (27 September 1973 – 8 November 2000) was an Icelandic footballer and businessman. He played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for several years in Iceland and Norway, winning the Icelandic championship and Icelandic Cup in 1999 with KR. In November 2000, he was murdered by his business partner and former teammate

Atli Helgason Atli Guðjón Helgason (born 7 March 1967) is an Icelandic lawyer and former footballer who played three games for the Iceland national football team. In 2001 he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the murder of his business partner Einar � ...

Football career

Einar played youth football for

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 ...

. He later played senior football for Víkingur, Valur and

Þróttur Reykjavík Þróttur may refer to: * Knattspyrnufélagið Þróttur Knattspyrnufélagið Þróttur, also referred to as Þróttur Reykjavík or Throttur, is a sports club from Reykjavík in Iceland. The club runs a association football, football department ...

. He had his breakout season in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, finishing tied for third most goals in the Icelandic top-tier league. In 1998, he joined

Lyn Ubisoft Montpellier is a French video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Castelnau-le-Lez. Founded in 1994 as Ubi Pictures, it is best known for developing the ''Rayman'' and ''Beyond Good & Evil'' series. At 350 employees as of Se ...

in Norway. After a good start with the club, he suffered an injury and missed most of the season. He left Lyn following the season due to its financial difficulties where they required him to take a 65% paycut. In 1999, he joined KR where he won the Icelandic championship and the Icelandic Cup. He left the club in April 2000 after a disagreement with manager

Pétur Pétursson Guðlaugur ''Pétur'' Pétursson (born 27 June 1959 in Akranes) is a retired Icelandic footballer who was active as a forward. Club career Pétur made his professional debut at ÍA and also played for Feyenoord Rotterdam, RSC Anderlecht (35 ...

and later sued KR for the remainder of his salary. He joined HK the same year, scoring 6 goals in 9 matches. On 7 November 2000, he played for

's reserve team, which also included singer

Stefán Hilmarsson Stefán is a common first name in Iceland. According to Icelandic custom, people are generally referred to by first and middle names and patronyms are used if disambiguation is required. ''Stefán'' is the Icelandic version of the Greek name Step ...

, in the 32 team stage of the Icelandic Handball Cup, scoring 3 goals in the reserve's team loss to ÍR.

Death

On 8 November 2000, Einar went missing which resulted in a massive search operation in the south part of Iceland. A week later, his business partner

confessed to his murder, having beaten Einar four times in his head with a hammer in

Öskjuhlíð Öskjuhlíð () is a hill in the centre of Reykjavík, Iceland. It is above sea level. The hill is a designated outdoors area and is covered with trees. At the top of the hill stands Perlan, a landmark building set on top of six water tanks. It ...

in Reykjavík and hiding his body near

Grindavík Grindavík () is a fishing town on the Southern Peninsula (Iceland), Southern Peninsula of Iceland not far from the tuya Þorbjörn (mountain), Þorbjörn. It is one of the few cities with a harbour on this coast. Most of the inhabitants work in ...

. On 29 May 2001, Atli was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the murder. He was released from prison in 2010. His case was featured in the Icelandic TV show Mannshvörf (e. Disappearances) and

Kastljós ''Kastljós'' ( en, Spotlight) is an Icelandic news magazine and talk show on the Icelandic national television channel RÚV. Þóra Arnórsdóttir is the current editor and former host of the show. The hosts for 2019-2020 are Einar Þorsteinsson ...

Personal life

Einar was the son of Aldís Einarsdóttir, a former handball player, and

Birgir Örn Birgis Birgir Örn Birgisson (23 September 1942 – 11 December 2017) was an Icelandic basketball player and coach. He was one of the inaugural players of the Icelandic national basketball team in 1959 and played a total of 33 national team games. H ...

, one of the inaugural players of the

Iceland men's national basketball team The Iceland men's national basketball team ( is, Íslenska karlalandsliðið í körfubolta) represents Iceland in international basketball tournaments. The team is controlled by the Icelandic Basketball Association. Iceland has qualified for t ...

References

External links

Profile
at Football Association of Iceland {{DEFAULTSORT:Birgisson, Einar Orn 1973 births 2000 deaths Einar Orn Birgisson Einar Orn Birgisson Einar Orn Birgisson Einar Orn Birgisson Einar Orn Birgisson Einar Orn Birgisson Einar Orn Birgisson Lyn Fotball players Murder victims Norwegian First Division players Einar Orn Birgisson Einar Orn Birgisson People murdered in Iceland