Gunnleifur Vignir Gunnleifsson (born 14 July 1975) is an

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 ...

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 ...

former

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, who spent most of his career with Breiðablik and HK.

Career

Gunnleifur started his career with local club HK by making 3 appearances in the 1995 season as the club was relegated from the 1. deild karla to the

2. deild 2. deild is the third tier league of football in the Faroe Islands. It was founded in 1976 and is organized by the Faroe Islands Football Association. It was originally called ''3. deild'' but became ''2. deild'' after a reorganization of the Fa ...

. He joined lower-league club KVA from

Eskifjörður Eskifjörður (in original spelling; ), or Eskifjördur is a town and port in eastern Iceland with a large fishing industry. With a population of 1,043 it is one of the most populous towns in the municipality of Fjarðabyggð. History Eskifjörðu ...

and

Reyðarfjörður Reyðarfjörður () is a town in Iceland. It has a population of 1,350 and is one of the most populated villages that constitute the municipality of Fjarðabyggð. History The town is at the bottom of the eponymous fjord, the largest on the east ...

(later known as

Fjarðabyggð Fjarðabyggð () is a municipality located in eastern Iceland, in the Eastern Region. History The municipality was formed in 1998 with the union of the former municipalities of Eskifjörður, Neskaupstaður and Reyðarfjörður. Austurbyggð, Fá ...

) and was their 1st choice goalkeeper for the 1996 season as the club was promoted from the lowest league, the

3. deild 3. deild menn is the fourth tier of football in the Faroe Islands. The majority of teams participating in the league are C or D sides of other Faroese clubs. At the end of the season two teams are promoted to 2. deild. There is no relegation from ...

, to the 2. deild. He then headed back to HK to be their main goalkeeper for the 1997 season in the 2. deild, as the club was promoted to the 1. deild again, along with Gunnleifur's former club KVA. After impressing in the lower leagues he moved to Úrvalsdeild karla club KR where he played 10 of 18 games in the

1998 Úrvalsdeild The 1998 season of Úrvalsdeild was the 87th season of league football in Iceland. ÍBV defended their title. ÍR and Þróttur were relegated.

, keeping a clean-sheet for seven games in a row, as well as keeping national team goalkeeper (8 games in the last year before that)

Kristján Finnbogason Kristján Finnbogason (born 8 May 1971) is an Icelandic former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is best remembered for his time at Úrvalsdeild side KR. Honours Club ;FH * Icelandic Premier Division: 2015, 2016 ;Grótta * Icelan ...

out of the team as KR finished 2nd in the league. He only managed one game in the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

season where KR won their first Icelandic title for 31 years, moving to fellow Úrvalsdeild outfit

Keflavík Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129. In 1995, Keflavik merged with nearby Njarðv ...

before the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

season as the club finished 6th, 2 points away from relegation, and again as they finished 6th in the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

season, this time 4 points away from relegation. Despite having played every game of both seasons for Keflavík he transferred back to his local club, HK, before the 2002 2. deild season as the club was promoted to the 1. deild karla again. The club won the league by winning 15 of 18 games and only losing once, with Gunnleifur even managing to score in the last game of the season against

Selfoss Selfoss may refer to: *Selfoss (town), Iceland *UMF Selfoss, a football club based in Selfoss **Selfoss men's football **Selfoss women's football *Selfoss (waterfall), Iceland *Selfoss Airport Selfoss Airport is an airport serving Selfoss, a to ...

from a penalty in the 70th minute to make the score 6–1, with the game finishing 7–2. He remained the first choice for HK as the club finished 8th in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, 3rd in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

two points from a promotion place, 7th in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and as the club finished 2nd in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and were promoted to the Úrvalsdeild for the first time. There he played every game in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

as HK finished 9th, two points away from relegation, and every game but one in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

as the club was relegated in 11th place. Gunnleifur joined Liechtenstein based

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

club

FC Vaduz FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

on loan on 13 February 2009 in the Icelandic off-season. He didn't return from the loan until late July, in the middle of the Icelandic season, and played 8 games as HK finished 3rd in the 2009 1. deild. Before the

2010 Úrvalsdeild The 2010 season of Úrvalsdeild was the 99th season of top-tier football in Iceland. It was also known as ''Pepsideild'' for sponsoring reasons. It began on 10 May 2010 and ended on 25 September 2010. Breiðablik won their first title, winning t ...

season, as he was now the main goalkeeper for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

, he transferred to Icelandic champions FH. The club lost out on the title on goal difference to Breiðablik in his first season and finished 2nd again in the

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

season, three points behind the champions. In the

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

season he won his first Icelandic title (besides featuring in one game in a title-winning 1999 season) as FH finished 1st, 13 points ahead of Breiðablik. After that season, as FH weren't ready to offer him more than a 1-year contract, he transferred to Breiðablik before the

2013 Úrvalsdeild The 2013 Úrvalsdeild karla (English: ''Men's Premier League''), also known as the Pepsi-deild for sponsorship reasons, is the 102nd season of top-flight Icelandic football. Twelve teams will contest the league; the defending champions are FH, wh ...

season and signed a 3-year contract. The move wasn't popular with HK fans, as HK and Breiðablik are the two major teams from

Kópavogur Kópavogur () is a town in Iceland that is the country's second largest municipality by population. It lies immediately south of Reykjavík and is part of the Capital Region. The name literally means ''seal pup inlet''. The town seal contains th ...

and as such have a rivalry. On 20 November 2020, Gunnleifur announced his retirement from football.

International career

During his time with Keflavík he played his first three international games, his debut coming as an 83rd-minute substitute in a 5–0 friendly 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 ...

in July 2000. He featured as the starting goalkeeper in two games in South America in January 2001, against

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, but didn't feature after that until after his 2008 season with HK. After that he featured in 18 games from his start against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in October 2008 until his start against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in November 2010, then not featuring in 2011 at all. He played three games in 2012, but was mostly a substitute for

Hannes Þór Halldórsson Hannes Þór Halldórsson (born 27 April 1984) is an Icelandic filmmaker and former professional footballer. He was a member of the Iceland national team where he was capped 77 times and appeared at UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. ...

Honours

;KVA *

: 1996 ;HK *

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 ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

;FH * Icelandic Cup:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

* Úrvalsdeild:

References

External links

* *
football.ch profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunnleifsson, Gunnleifur Vignir 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Reykjavík Icelandic footballers FC Vaduz players Expatriate footballers in Liechtenstein Gunnleifur Gunnleifsson Handknattleiksfélag Kópavogs players Gunnleifur Gunnleifsson Association football goalkeepers Knattspyrnudeild Keflavík players Icelandic expatriate footballers Icelandic expatriate sportspeople in Liechtenstein