Björn Bergmann Sigurðarson (born 26 February 1991) 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 lea ...

who played as a forward. He began his career with ÍA in his native Iceland before a three-year spell at Norwegian side

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Akershus county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger ...

, during which time he made his international debut. In July 2012, he moved to English side

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

for a reported £2.4m fee. His contract with Wolves expired in June 2016 without renewal.

Club career

ÍA

Björn made his debut for his hometown club ÍA in the

2007 Úrvalsdeild The 2007 season of Úrvalsdeild karla was the 96th season of top tier football in Iceland. Title contenders were considered to be KR, FH, ÍA and Valur. HK were playing for the first time in Landsbankadeild. The league was expanded from 10 ...

. He was mostly employed as a substitute in his first season, but became a regular first team player during the next season. However, ÍA suffered relegation to the second level. He did not remain at ÍA after their relegation, though, and instead signed a three-year contract with Norwegian club

in January 2009.

Lillestrøm

After making his club debut on 22 March 2009 against

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

, Björn's first season in the Tippeliga was troubled by numerous lower back injuries. He did manage to make 12 appearances, scoring once (against Bodø/Glimt on 20 September). In the 2010 season, he became regular player for the club, a position he has held ever since. In Autumn 2011, his contract was extended further to run until 2014, though this news was not made public. In the 2012 season, Björn scored seven times in the first eleven league games, as well as four goals in two cup ties.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

On 18 June 2012, Björn's club officially announced that they had accepted an undisclosed bid for him from English side

, believed to be in the region of £2.4 million. After passing to a medical and agreeing to personal terms for a four-year contract, the deal was finalised on 17 July 2012. The Icelandic striker made his Wolves debut as a substitute in an opening day defeat at

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 win at

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

in late September, the first of five goals during a campaign that ended in relegation to League One. In the 2013–14 season, under his third different manager during his time at Wolves, Björn failed to hold down a regular place in Wolves' team and, on 31 January 2014, he was loaned to Norwegian side

Molde Molde () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the seat of Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Pen ...

for the remainder of 2014 in order to complete the Norwegian league season. During this loan spell he won the league and cup double with Molde. On 1 January 2016, he came on as a 67th-minute substitute for James Henry in a 1–0 Championship win at

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

, his first Wolves appearance for over two years. Björn went on to often be used during the second half of the season, frequently as a lone forward, but failed to score during these 15 appearances, meaning his final goal for Wolves had come almost three years prior in August 2013. At the conclusion of the season, Wolves announced they would not be renewing his contract. He had made 75 appearances in total for the club, scoring seven times.

Molde

On 12 July 2016, Björn joined Norwegian club

on a free transfer. This came after his short loan spell with the club in 2014. He made his debut for Molde on 28 March 2014 in a 2–0 home win against

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for i ...

. In this match, he also scored his first goal for Molde. It came in the 29th minute, and was the first of the game. He was subbed off in the 82nd minute of that match, being replaced by Tommy Høiland.

Rostov

On 5 January 2018, Björn signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with the Russian club

Rostov Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

. On 22 January 2020, he was loaned to Cypriot club APOEL.

Return to Lillestrøm

On 14 August 2020, he returned to

and signed a contract until the end of 2020.

Return to Molde

On 1 February 2021,

announced the return of Sigurðarson on a two-year contract.

International career

Björn has represented Iceland at numerous youth levels, most recently playing for their Under-21 team in the qualifying competition for the 2013 European Under-21 Championship. He played two matches in the 2011 European Under-21 Championship Finals in Denmark. He has seven caps for the full Icelandic national team, having made his debut as a substitute in a 1–0 win over

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

during Euro 2012 qualification on 6 September 2011. He scored his first goal for the Iceland senior team in a 2–1 World Cup Qualifying win against

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

. The goal came in the 25th minute. He played at China Cup 2017, where Iceland won silver medals In May 2018, he was named in Iceland's 23-man squad for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in l ...

in Russia.

Personal life

Björn has three half-brothers,

Bjarni Guðjónsson Bjarni Eggerts Guðjónsson (born 26 February 1979) is an Icelandic former professional footballer, who was last manager of KR. He has played in Belgium, England and Germany and has two brothers who have also played professional football, Þ� ...

Þórður Guðjónsson Þórður "Thordur" Gudjonsson (born 14 October 1973) is an Icelandic former professional footballer who played as a midfielder or striker. Club career Þórður was born in Akranes started his career with local teams KA Akureyri and ÍA A ...

and Joey Guðjónsson, who have all been professional footballers as well as playing for the Icelandic national team. Joey also played for Wolves.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Iceland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Björn goal.''

Honours

Molde *

Tippeligaen Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

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 ...

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 ...

Individual *

top scorer: 17 goals in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

References

External links