Þorvaldur "Toddy" Örlygsson (born 2 August 1966) 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. After retiring, he has worked as a manager, with his most recent side being

ic club

Keflavík Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129. In 1995, Keflavík merged with nearby Njar ...

. He is the younger brother of former international player Ormarr Örlygsson. Þorvaldur started at

Knattspyrnufélag Akureyrar Knattspyrnufélag Akureyrar (, ), commonly abbreviated to KA, is an Icelandic multi-sport club based in Akureyri in the north of Iceland. The club was founded in 1928. The football team currently plays in Besta deild karla and have won the top ...

and played most of his career in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, first in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

for

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

and later for First Division clubs

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

and

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2025–26 EFL League Two, 2025–26 season, the team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the Eng ...

before returning to Iceland. On 24 February 2024, Þorvaldur was elected as chairman of 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 ...

Career

"Toddy" arrived at

in December 1989 for a fee of £175,000 from KA Akureyri after impressing

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

. Þorvaldur took a while to make an impact and it was not until 1992 that he established himself in Forest's line-up. He played in 23 matches during the 1992–93, the first season of the

which saw Forest suffer relegation. New manager Frank Clark decided to release Þorvaldur and in August 1993 he joined

on a free transfer. He was signed by manager

Lou Macari Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Kenn ...

as a replacement for Kevin Russell. He soon made an impression on the supporters with a fine performance away at his former club Nottingham Forest. A number of fine goals earned him a great rapport with the supporters and he became a popular player at the

Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. Histor ...

. He scored 11 goals in 58 appearances in 1993–94 and hit eight goals in 44 matches in 1994–95. However his relationship with the fans turned sour when he rejected a new contract offer in the summer of 1995 and consequently found himself out of the side and eventually signed for

for a fee of £180,000 in December 1995. His career in England was cut short by injury in 1999 though he played again for three more years at his first club KA Akureyri as well as a year as player manager. He later became full-time manager of KA Akureyri and

Fjarðabyggð Fjarðabyggð () is a municipality located in eastern Iceland, in the Eastern Region. History The municipality was formed in 1998 with the union of the former municipalities of Eskifjörður, Neskaupstaður and Reyðarfjörður. Austurbyggð, ...

was appointed manager of Fram in 2008. He spent five years with Fram before becoming manager of ÍA Akranes on 19 June 2013.

International career

He made his debut for

in 1987 and went on to win 41 caps, scoring 7 goals. He played his last international match in a November 1995 European Championship qualifying match against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Career statistics

Club

Sources: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the

Anglo-Italian Cup The Anglo-Italian Cup (, also known as the Anglo-Italian Inter-League Clubs Competition and from 1976 to 1986 as the Alitalia Challenge Cup, Talbot Challenge Cup or Gigi Peronace Memorial) was a European football competition. The competition was ...

Full Members Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. T ...

International

Source:

References

External links