Guðrún Sóley Gunnarsdóttir (born 15 September 1982) 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 ...

ic former

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 ...

defender who was part of Iceland's national team and competed at

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 The 2009 UEFA Women's Championship, or just Women's Euro 2009, was played in Finland between 23 August and 10 September 2009. The host was appointed on 11 July 2006, in a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Berlin and the Finnish proposal won over ...

. Guðrún was the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of Breiðablik and also played in Sweden's

Damallsvenskan The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OBOS Damallsvenskan for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is also referred to as the women's Allsvenskan. The term Allsvenskan ...

for Djurgårdens IF Dam. During her career she won the Icelandic championship five times and the Icelandic Cup three times. In 2004, she won the

NCAA championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

with the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

Club career

Named in the Icelandic Úrvalsdeild's team of the year nine times, Guðrún was also named

KR Reykjavík KR is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and WMO country code for South Korea. KR or Kr may also refer to: Sports * KR (basketball club), associated with Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur * Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, an Icelandic football club * Kickoff r ...

's player of the season in 2008. She had simultaneously completed a scholarship at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

, where she played

varsity soccer In most English-speaking countries, varsity is an abbreviation of the word ''university''. In the United States and Canada, the term is mostly used in relation to sports teams. Varsity in the United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, varsity team ...

for the "

Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

". For the 2009 season, Guðrún went on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

to Djurgårdens IF Dam in Sweden, where she joined compatriot

Guðbjörg Gunnarsdóttir Guðbjörg "Gugga" Gunnarsdóttir (born 18 May 1985) is an Icelanders, Icelandic Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Swedish Damallsvenskan club Eskilstuna United DFF, Eskilstuna Uni ...

. Guðrún played well in Sweden and was reportedly subject to approaches from

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

and

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

of the American

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

(WPS). A head injury sustained at UEFA Women's Euro 2009 proved more serious than anticipated and caused Guðrún's premature retirement from football. It was reported in July 2013 that she was contemplating a comeback with KR.

International career

Guðrún's senior international debut for

was on 14 October 1999, in a 5–0 defeat by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Personal life

A reader poll by Finnish newspaper ''

Ilta-Sanomat ''Ilta-Sanomat'' () is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid size evening newspaper and the second largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is ''Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019 ''Ilta- ...

'' saw Guðrún voted the most beautiful player at UEFA Women's Euro 2009, with more than twice as many votes as runner-up

Kosovare Asllani Kosovare Asllani (born 29 July 1989) is a Swedish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), striker or an Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfielder for Italian first division Serie A ...

. Since 2009 she has worked as an

investment banker Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with ...

, with

Sveriges Riksbank Sveriges Riksbank, or simply the ''Riksbank'', is the central bank of Sweden. It is the world's oldest central bank and the fourth oldest bank in operation. Etymology The first part of the word ''riksbank'', ''riks'', stems from the Swedish w ...

then

Central Bank of Iceland The Central Bank of Iceland ( is, Seðlabanki Íslands) is the central bank or reserve bank of Iceland. It has served in this capacity since 1961, when it was created by an act of the Alþingi out of the central banking department of Landsbank ...

Achievements

*Five times Icelandic champion *Three times Icelandic cup winner

Honours

*Player of the Year in Breiðablik in 2007. *Player of the Year in KR in 2008. *Sport Person of the Year in

Seltjarnarnes Seltjarnarnes () is a town in the Capital Region of Iceland. Seltjarnarnes is beside Reykjavik. It took on its current political form shortly after the Second World War and was formally created as a township in 1947. It is the smallest Icelandic ...

in 1999.

References

External links

* 1981 births Living people Gudrun Soley Gunnarsdottirs Damallsvenskan players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll (women) players Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Gudrun Soley Gunnarsdottir Gudrun Soley Gunnarsdottir Gudrun Soley Gunnarsdottir Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's soccer players Gudrun Soley Gunnarsdottir Women's association football defenders {{Iceland-women-footy-bio-stub