Ásgeir "Sigi" Sigurvinsson (born 8 May 1955 in

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyja ...

) is an

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

ic retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

and coach. He spent most of his career at

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège ( ; ; ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most successful clubs in Belgium, having won t ...

and in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, amassing

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

totals of 211 games and 39 goals for two clubs, mainly

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

Club career

One of the first Icelandic footballers to play in a foreign country, Ásgeir played a single game for Rangers' reserve side in late 1972 before moving to Belgian club

in 1973. He stayed there for eight seasons, amassing more than 300 appearances overall and helping it to the 1981

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

. Immediately after, he was bought by

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional association foo ...

. He played 17 times in his first season, scoring once. He was an unused substitute in the 1982 European Cup final and was the only non-German in the squad that day, but only stayed with the club for one year. Ásgeir then joined fellow

team

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

, where he figured prominently until his retirement at 35. In his second year he scored a career-best – in Germany – 12 goals, being instrumental in a league conquest after a 32-year wait. During his penultimate season, Ásgeir netted three times from 28 appearances as the ''Roten'' finished fifth, still adding all 12 matches (ten complete) in the side's runner-up run in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. After retiring, he worked at Stuttgart for another three years, as a

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

. Between April and November 1993, Ásgeir had his first coaching experience, with

Knattspyrnufélagið Fram ''Knattspyrnufélagið Fram'' (, ) is a professional Icelandic sports club, best known for its football and handball teams. It was founded on 1 May 1908 in Reykjavík. It was based at Safamýri, in the Háaleiti og Bústaðir district near Reyk ...

International career

Ásgeir gained 45

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

and scored five goals, his debut coming on 3 July 1972 at only 17 in a 2–5 friendly home loss against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. He acted as technical director at the

Football Association of Iceland The Football Association of Iceland (, , KSÍ) is the governing body of football in Iceland. It was founded on 26 March 1947, joined FIFA the same year, and UEFA in 1954. It organises the football league, Úrvalsdeild, and the Iceland men's nat ...

for six years, and later coached the national team from 2003 until late 2005. In November 2003, to celebrate

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

's 50 anniversary, the Icelandic FA selected Ásgeir as its Golden Player, the most outstanding Icelandic player of the last 50 years.

Honours

;ÍBV * Icelandic Cup:

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

;Standard Liège *

: 1980–81 ;Bayern Munich *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

: 1981–82 ;Stuttgart *

: 1983–84 ;Individual *'' Kicker''

Team of the Season: 1983-84, 1985-1986

References

External links