Ólafur Þórðarson (; born 22 August 1965) 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 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 lea ...

, who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. Ólafur is the former coach of Vikingur Reykjavik. He is the brother of

Teitur Thordarson Teitur Thordarson (, born 14 January 1952) is an Icelandic football coach. He is the older brother of Ólafur Þórðarson. Playing career Club Íþróttabandalag Akraness Before coaching, Teitur playing as a striker for nearly two decades. H ...

, former manager of

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

when Ólafur played against them with Iceland in 1996.

Club career

Ólafur started his career at IA Akranes before moving abroad to play in the Norwegian League. He returned to Iceland after four seasons to captain the IA side again and participated in IA Akranes glory years when they won the

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

title five consecutive times from 1992 to 1996. After the 1997 season he was hired as player/manager at

Fylkir Íþróttafélagið Fylkir (, ) is a multi-sport club in Árbær, in the eastern part of Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. It features departments in football, handball, volleyball, gymnastics and karate. Kit The Fylkir official home kit is ...

and got them promoted in 1999. In the autumn same year he was appointed as manager of IA Akranes which he managed until mid season 2006 when he was sacked because the team were battling in the relegation zone. Ólafur also played briefly with the team but his last game in football was 2002. Under his management IA Akranes won the

Úrvalsdeild The Besta deild karla () is a professional association football league in Iceland and the highest level of the Icelandic football league system. The competition was founded in 1912 as the Icelandic Championship. Because of the harsh winters in I ...

(top-flight) title in 2001 and the VISA-bikar twice, in 2000 and 2003. In 2007, Ólafur took charge of Fram and guided them into 7th place. After the season, he quit and was without a team in the 2008 season. But in start of October 2008 he was announced as new manager of Fylkir and returned to the club where he started his coaching career. After three decent seasons with Fylkir finishing 3rd in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, Ólafur decided to step down from the coaching role after the 2011 season after guiding them to a mid-table finish, allegedly due to disagreement with the board over player transfer issues. Ólafur was quickly picked up after the 2011 season, in October the same year, to coach Víkingur Reykjavik. The Vikings had been unfortunate to suffer relegation in the 2011 season and were eager to regain their place among the best. After one season of struggle and re-organization at Víkin in 2012, Ólafur's work paid off as he managed to push Víkingur into promotion to the Úrvalsdeild in the 2013 season along with coach Miloš Milojević. In the following season, together they carefully steered the team to a

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

qualifying position of 4th place in the

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

season, Víkingur's highest league position since winning the championship title in 1991.

International career

Ólafur made his debut for

in 1984 and went on to collect 72 caps, scoring 5 goals.Iceland - Record International Players
- RSSSF He played his last international match in a November 1996 World Cup qualifying match against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Honours

* Icelandic Championships: 7 ** 1983, 1984, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2001 * Icelandic Cups: 7 ** 1983, 1984, 1986, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2003 * 1995 Iceland Players' Player of the year

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thordarson, Olafur 1965 births Living people Olafur Thordarson Olafur Thordarson Olafur Thordarson Olafur Thordarson Olafur Thordarson SK Brann players Lyn Fotball players Olafur Thordarson Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Olafur Thordarson Olafur Thordarson Olafur Thordarson Eliteserien players Olafur Thordarson Olafur Thordarson Men's association football midfielders 20th-century Icelandic sportsmen