Ólafur Örn Bjarnason (born 15 May 1975) is an Icelandic former professional

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 lea ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He is currently the Head of Coaching at

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

side AaB.

Club career

He started his career in Grindavík, and returned there after two years in Swedish club

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

. In 2004, he moved from Grindavík to SK Brann in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, Norway. His first season was successful, and he played every league match. In 2006, he formed one of Norway's strongest centre back duo with his countryman, Kristján Örn Sigurðsson, together named ''Örneredet'' (en: eagles nest). He returned to Grindavík in August 2010 in a player/manager role. With 213 official matches for Brann, he's the most capped foreign player, and 11th most capped player in the club's history. Before the 2013 season he signed for Fram.

International career

Ólafur has been

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

ped 27 times for

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 ...

. He made his début in a friendly match in June 1998 against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

as a substitute for Sverrir Sverrisson.

Coaching career

On 24 June 2010 returned to Grindavík and was named as their new head coach, he replaced Milan Stefán Jankovic. After the 2011 season he quit as manager, but decided nonetheless to play for them in the 2012 season. On September 9, 2013, Ólafur confirmed that he was hanging up his boots. In early 2014, Ólafur became manager of the Norwegian club FK Fyllingsdalen. He held this position until the end of 2016, when he became manager of Egersunds IK from New Year 2017. Ólafur retired from Egersund in the summer of 2018 and shortly after got a job in the

Norwegian Football Federation The Norwegian Football Federation (, ; NFF) is the governing body of football (soccer), football in Norway. It was formed in 1902 and organises the Norway national football team, men's and Norway women's national football team, women's national te ...

in the Agder region, in a role as KA Coach Development. He held this role until May 2023. In the winter of 2023, Ólafur started working as Head of Academy at Stabæk. He left that position in July 2024 when he accepted a job as Head of Coaching at Danish club AaB.Olafur Bjarnason bliver Head of Coaching i AaB
aabsport.dk, 12 July 2024

Honours

Norway

* Norwegian Premier League:

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Norwegian cup The Norwegian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football tournament in the country. The tournament ...

: 2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bjarnason, Olafur Orn 1975 births Living people Olafur Orn Olafur Orn Olafur Orn Olafur Orn Olafur Orn Olafur Orn Malmö FF players SK Brann players Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Eliteserien players Allsvenskan players Olafur Orn Olafur Orn Men's association football defenders AaB Fodbold non-playing staff