Hermann Gunnarsson (9 December 1946 – 4 June 2013) commonly referred to by his nickname, Hemmi Gunn, was 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 television and radio personality, performer and 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 ...

and

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

player at an international level. Hermann is known as one of Iceland's greats both in football and handball. He also played basketball at club level (with

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 ...

, as in football and handball), but never played a national game in that sport.

Media personality

Hermann is also famous for hosting the top-rated talk show

Á tali hjá Hemma Gunn Á, á ( a-acute) is a letter of the Chinese (Pinyin), Blackfoot, Czech, Dutch, Faroese, Galician, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Lakota, Navajo, Occitan, Portuguese, Sámi, Slovak, Spanish, Vietnamese, Welsh, and Western Apache languages a ...

on the public TV channel Sjónvarpið for many years in the 1980s and 1990s. The show still remains one of the highest rated shows in Icelandic television history. After spending several years away from the spotlight from the late 1990s until the early 2000s he returned to television in 2005 to host a musical game show on

Stöð 2 Stöð 2 (literally Station 2) is an Icelandic subscription television channel, owned and operated by Sýn. Founded in 1986, it was the first privately owned television station in Iceland following the lifting of the state monopoly on televisi ...

. In fall 2006 he started a new weekly talk show on Stöð 2. Hermann has also released musical albums, hosted a radio show on

Bylgjan Bylgjan (''The Wave'') is an Icelandic radio station, run by the media company Sýn. Launched in 1986, it was the first privately owned radio station in Iceland. Bylgjan is broadcast throughout the country from a network of FM transmitters (98. ...

among other activities. He spent some years in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

during his break from the media.

Football career

Hermann was one of Iceland's top football players in the 1960s and 70s and played with the national football team. He played 14 official matches, scoring 4 goals, 4 matches against amateur sides, scoring 2 goals and 2 games against the Spanish amateur team in an Olympic qualifier, not scoring in those matches. Hermann played with Víkingur R. until he was 10 years old, when he switched to

. One summer he scored 62 goals in 15 games for their youth team. Hermann started his senior career in 1963 with

, where he played until 1968, when he moved to Austria to play as a professional with

SC Eisenstadt SC Eisenstadt (Croatian: NK Željezno) was an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club based in Eisenstadt. Established in 1907, it played in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. It folded in 2008. In 2018 SC Eisenstadt started again i ...

, the third Icelander to play as a professional footballer, after Albert Guðmundsson and Þórólfur Beck. He returned home after 6 months, refusing offers from Austria and West Germany. In the

1967–68 European Cup The 1967–68 European Cup was the 13th European Cup, UEFA's premier club football tournament. The competition was won by Manchester United, who beat Benfica 4–1 in the final at Wembley Stadium, London. The European Cup title marked the tenth ...

, when

reached the last 16 (or less impressively, the 2nd round), he was 5th-7th in the top scorer list, scoring 4 goals, after having jointly-lead with 3 goals after 2 matches with

George Best George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest pla ...

and

Paul van Himst Paul Van Himst (born 2 October 1943) is a Belgian former football player and a football manager who played as a forward, most notably for R.S.C. Anderlecht. Career Van Himst was nicknamed ''Polle Gazon'' (''Polle'' is Paul in Brussels dialect, ...

. In 1970, he played with and managed ÍBA (Sport alliance of

Akureyri Akureyri (, locally ) is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fifth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, Reykjanesbær and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's more populated southwest corner. Nicknamed ...

, composed of KA and Þór A.), but returned to

before the

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

season where he spent the remainder of his career, retiring before the 1977 Úrvalsdeild season to become a sports reporter. In total Hermann scored 95 times in the Úrvalsdeild, 81 times with Valur and 14 times with ÍBA. Hermann was top scorer of the Úrvalsdeild three times, in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

with

(12 goals in a season with 10 matches), in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

with ÍBA (14 goals in a season with 14 matches) and in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

with

(17 goals in 13 matches). In

he was the player-manager of ÍBA, 23 years old, the youngest manager in the history of the Úrvalsdeild. The club finished 6th out of 8 teams that year.

Handball career

Hermann also represented the Icelandic national handball team, scoring 45 goals in 15 matches. He claimed in an interview in 1977 to be the (then) world-record holder for goals scored in a national handball game, as he scored 17 goals when Iceland won the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

41–17 in 1966.

Basketball

Outside of football and handball, Hermann also played for Valur's basketball team in the Icelandic top-tier league. He played his first official senior team game on 24 January 1971, scoring 4 points.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hermann Gunnarsson 1946 births 2013 deaths Association football forwards Iceland international footballers Icelandic television personalities Icelandic footballers Úrvalsdeild karla (basketball) players Valur men's basketball players