Hólmfríður "Fríða" Magnúsdóttir (born 20 September 1984) is an Icelandic former

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 ...

who played as a

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 ...

or as an attacking

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 ...

. Hólmfríður was a part of Iceland's national team from 2003 to 2020 and represented her country at the 2009 and

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editions of the

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years, is the main competition in women's association football between national teams of the UEFA confederation. The competition is the women's equivalen ...

Club career

At the 2009 WPS International Draft, Hólmfríður was picked fifth by the Philadelphia Independence, one of two expansion teams entering

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). She was often deployed as a left back by coach Paul Riley and made 31 appearances in two seasons with the Independence, scoring four goals. During her second season, 2011, Hólmfríður struggled with fitness after being injured and was allowed to move back to Iceland with Valur. Philadelphia brought her back for 2012, but the league folded before the campaign began. Instead Hólmfríður accepted a contract from ambitious Norwegian club Avaldsnes IL, then languishing in the First Division. During her stay with Avaldsnes, she was sexually harassed and stalked by her coach, Tom Nordlie, which led to his firing. In November 2016, Hólmfríður rejoined her hometown club, KR. Hólmfríður sat out the

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season due to pregnancy. After contemplating retiring, she signed with Úrvalsdeild kvenna club Selfoss in April 2019, and started training five days before the 2019 Úrvalsdeild season started. On 17 August 2019, Hólmfríður scored in Selfoss' 2–1 victory against KR in the Icelandic Cup finals, securing the club's first major trophy. In September 2020, Hólmfríður returned to Norway and signed with Avaldsnes again. She finished the season with Avaldsnes, scoring one goal in four games, before returning to Selfoss in December 2020. She appeared in one game in the Icelandic Women's Football League Cup on 28 February 2021. On 16 March 2021, Hólmfríður announced her retirement from football. A month later, she reversed her decision and decided to return to Selfoss. She appeared in eleven matches, scoring three goals, before the club announced on 17 August that due to being pregnant with her second child she would be leaving the team and be retiring from football.

International career

Hólmfríður made her senior international debut for

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 ...

in a 1–0 friendly defeat to 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 territori ...

on 16 February 2003. In Iceland's UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying play-off against the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

, Hólmfríður scored in the first minute of the first leg in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

. At the final tournament, she played in all three group matches as Iceland were eliminated in the first round. National team coach Siggi Eyjólfsson selected Hólmfríður in his Iceland squad for

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held in Sweden from 10 to 28 July 2013, became the mos ...

. Again she featured in all three group matches but collected two yellow cards and was suspended for Iceland's 4–0 quarter-final defeat to hosts Sweden. In October 2020, Hólmfríður was selected to the national team squad for the first time in three years, replacing injured

Dagný Brynjarsdóttir Dagný Brynjarsdóttir (born 10 August 1991) is an Icelandic professional footballer who plays for West Ham United in the FA Women's Super League and the Iceland national team. She previously played for Bayern Munich, Selfoss, and collegiat ...

References

External links