Emil Hallfreðsson (born 29 June 1984) is 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 plays as a

central 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 ...

left winger 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 ...

for Italian club

Virtus Verona Virtus Verona, founded as Unione Sportiva Virtus Borgo Venezia in 1921, sometimes referred to as Virtus Vecomp Verona for sponsorship reasons, is an Italian association football club located in Borgo Venezia, a district of Verona, Veneto. It c ...

and the Iceland national team.

Club career

Early career

Primarily a left-sided

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 ...

, Emil was brought to

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

by then Sporting Director

Frank Arnesen Frank Arnesen (born 30 September 1956) is a former Danish footballer and sporting director at Dutch football club Feyenoord. Arnesen was the Director of Football at English football clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, and was Sporting Director a ...

in December 2004, having spent his formative years at FH Hafnarfjarðar of the Úrvalsdeild in Iceland. Emil became a regular starter for the Tottenham Hotspur Reserves, and played a key part in the Spurs' 2005–06 Premier League Southern Reserve title win. He was then loaned out to Swedish side

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association, ...

,. He enjoyed some success with Malmö, starting a majority of the games in the 2006 season, with a total of 24 appearances and eight goals. He then returned to England in the fall, after Malmö unsuccessfully tried to convince him to stay. His aim had then been to make the Spurs first team, but in his remaining months at the club he was not selected for a single game. In July 2007, he was sold to Norwegian club Lyn, where he was slated to stay until 2010. His first match for the club was a friendly against

Ham-Kam Hamarkameratene (literally ''the Hamar Comrades''), often abbreviated to HamKam or Ham-Kam, is a Norwegian football club based in the town of Hamar. The club was founded in 1918, originally under the name Freidig. HamKam were most recently pr ...

, followed by a 20-minute substitution in a league game away against

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a city and the most populous municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838. The municipality of Sandar was merged into Sandefjord on 1 January 1969. On 1 ...

. His first and only 90-minute appearance was against Bodø/Glimt in the

Norwegian Cup The Norwegian Football Cup ( no, Norgesmesterskapet i fotball for herrer) is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football ...

, in which he delivered a fine cross to

Dylan Macallister Dylan Jacob Macallister (born 17 May 1982) is a retired Australian football (soccer) player who currently coaches for Manly United FC in the National Premier League. He previously played for Australian clubs Sydney Olympic, Northern Spirit, Cen ...

for the 1–0 goal and the win. Three days later, the club surprisingly announced that Emil would be leaving for Italy and Reggina.

Reggina

Emil played his first Serie A match on 26 August 2007 a 1–1 draw with

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

. In his first season, he played a regular role in Reggina's team, but in the second season he played less. In April 2009 he did, however, score a spectacular goal against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

; he scored the 2–1 goal for his team but the match ended 2–2.

Barnsley

Having not been selected to play for Reggina first match of the 2009–10 season at

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

, he completed a one-year loan to

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

side

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

on 14 August 2009. He scored his first goal for Barnsley against Plymouth Argyle on 28 November 2009. However, the game was later abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch. His first goal did come two weeks later however, in the home game with

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

, slamming home a

Daniel Bogdanović Daniel Bogdanović (born 26 March 1980) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker and coach for Għajnsielem F.C. in the Gozo Football League. Born in Libya, he represented the Malta national team. Club career Bogdanović spent ...

cross from six yards. Emil's goal made it 1–1 in an eventual 2–2 draw.

Verona

On 31 August 2010, Reggina loaned him to

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

. His first season with Verona he was a regular starter and a decisive player in achieving promotion to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

. At the end of the season, Emil won the Mastino del Bentegodi award as the team's player of the year. Looking ahead to the upcoming Serie B season, on 22 June 2011, three days after winning the First Division play-off, Verona outbid Reggina to purchase his contract.

Udinese

On 30 January 2016, Emil joined

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

, signing a contract until June 2018.

Frosinone

On 31 July 2018, Emil signed with

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

side

Frosinone Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the Va ...

Return to Udinese

On 1 March 2019, Emil signed for the second time to

after the first half of the season to Frosinone.

Padova

On 4 January 2020, he signed with

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

club

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

until the end of the 2019–20 season. On 16 September 2020, he signed a new contract with Padova for the 2020–21 season.

Virtus Verona

On 6 October 2021, Hallfreðsson signed a one-year contract for Serie C side

as a free transfer.

International career

Emil was selected for

EURO 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

by the Iceland national team. In May 2018 he was named in Iceland's 23-man squad for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Russia.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Iceland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Hallfreðsson goal.''

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hallfredsson, Emil 1984 births Living people Emil Hallfredsson Emil Hallfredsson Association football midfielders Emil Hallfredsson Emil Hallfredsson Emil Hallfredsson UEFA Euro 2016 players 2018 FIFA World Cup players Emil Hallfredsson Emil Hallfredsson English Football League players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Allsvenskan players Malmö FF players Eliteserien players Lyn Fotball players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Reggina 1914 players Hellas Verona F.C. players Udinese Calcio players Frosinone Calcio players Calcio Padova players Virtus Verona players Emil Hallfredsson Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Norway Expatriate footballers in Italy Emil Hallfredsson Emil Hallfredsson Emil Hallfredsson Emil Hallfredsson