Dagný Brynjarsdóttir (; born 10 August 1991) is an Icelandic 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 plays for

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

in the FA Women's Super League and the Iceland national team. She previously played for Bayern Munich, Portland Thorns, Selfoss, and collegiate soccer for the

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University (FSU) located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I, prima ...

Early life

Dagný started playing football when she was six years old, with her first club, KFR from Hella and Hvolsvöllur. She played for them in 2006 as they competed in a joint effort with

Ægir Ægir (anglicised as Aegir; Old Norse 'sea'), Hlér (Old Norse 'sea'), or Gymir (Old Norse less clearly 'sea, engulfer'), is a jötunn and a anthropomorphism, personification of the sea in Norse mythology. In the Old Norse record, Ægir hosts the ...

from

Þorlákshöfn Þorlákshöfn (, ) is a town on the southern coast of Iceland in the Municipality of Ölfus. The town is named after Saint Thorlak who was a bishop at Skálholt. Its main importance is as a port as it has the only harbour on Iceland's southern c ...

. From 2007 to 2013 she played for Valur from

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

in the best women's league in Iceland,

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 ...

as it was then called. In 2011 Dagný began attending

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

and began playing for

. She returned to Iceland to play for Valur during the summer months.

College career

Florida State Seminoles

Dagný attended

where she was a four-year starter from 2011 to 2014 for the Seminoles in the midfielder position. She helped lead the Seminoles to a national championship in 2014. Dagný holds the school record for 19 game-winning goals and is second in total goals (44), shots (232), and points (111). She was a first team All-American in 2014 and the runner-up for the MAC

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and th ...

, given annually to the best college female soccer player. She was named Soccer America 2014 Women's Player of the Year. She was also named as a first team Scholar All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Club career

Selfoss and Bayern München

In 2014, Dagný played for Selfoss. In 2015, she signed for the second half of the season to the German

Frauen-Bundesliga The Frauen-Bundesliga (German language, German for ''Women's Federal League''), currently known as the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of league competition for women's association football in Germany. I ...

team Bayern München.

Portland Thorns

After her career at Florida State, Dagný did not sign up for the 2015 draft to play in the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...

in the United States. In May 2015, she attempted to play during the 2015 season with the

Western New York Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American women's soccer club based in Elma, New York, that most recently competed in the United Women's Soccer league in 2018. They won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-Leag ...

, but was prevented from doing so by league rules. In October 2015, the

Portland Thorns FC Portland Thorns FC is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Portland, Oregon, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team NWSL ...

announced that they had acquired rights for her from the

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional women's soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defu ...

and that she would play for the Thorns in the 2016 NWSL season. After spending the 2016 and 2017 seasons with the Thorns, it was announced that Dagný would miss the 2018 season due to pregnancy. She gave birth to a son in June 2018 and returned to training with the team in March 2019.

Selfoss

In 2019, Dagný left the Thorns, citing the difficulty of raising her son so far away from her home nation and family, and returned to Iceland to sign with Selfoss.

West Ham United

On 28 January 2021, Dagný signed for

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

side

. She made her debut for the club in a 2–0 home defeat in a league match against Chelsea on 7 March 2021 She ended her first season campaign with 9 appearances across all competition with no goals. It was not until the 2021–22 season that she scored her first goal for the club in the season opener against Manchester City in a 2–0 league win on 3 October 2021. She then scored West Ham United's extra-time winner at Reading in the FA Women's Cup fifth round on 27 February 2022. She ended the season with 27 appearances for West Ham United in all competitions, scoring six goals. Prior to the start of the 2022–23 season, Dagný switched her kit number from 32 to 10, following the departure of Kateřina Svitková from the club in the summer. She was then named club captain for the club by manager Paul Konchesky. She would end the season as the club's topscorer with 11 goals in 28 appearances across all competition and named 2022/23 Women's Player of the Year by the supporters. On 9 August 2023, Dagný announced that she will miss the 2023–24 season after announcing she is expecting her second child. On 8 March 2024, West Ham United released their original documentary
Ómarsson
which tells the story of Dagný's journey with pregnancy as a professional sportswoman and the barriers faced by female athletes when making the decision to start a family.

International career

Dagný made her debut for the senior Iceland national football team at the 2010 Algarve Cup; in a 2–0 defeat to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on 24 February 2010. She was called up to be part of the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

for the

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for List of women's national association football teams#UEFA, women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament ...

. In Iceland's final group match against the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, Dagný headed the only goal of the game to secure her team's place in the quarter-finals. It later emerged that she had played the game with a broken foot, sustained in the previous match against

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 ...

. On 7 April 2022, she played her 100th match for Iceland in a 5–0 win over

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

in the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process determined 30 of the 32 teams which will play in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the co-hosts Australia women's national soccer team, Australia and New Zealand women's national football ...

Personal life

Dagný gave birth to son Brynjar Atli in June 2018, making her one of several mothers playing in NWSL. She subsequently married the father, long-term boyfriend Ómar Páll Sigurbjartsson, in July 2019. In August 2023, Dagný and Ómar Páll announced they were expecting their second child, another boy, who was subsequently born in early 2024.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Valur * Besta deild kvenna: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 * Icelandic Women's Football Cup: 2009, 2010, 2011 * Icelandic Women's Football Cup runner-up: 2012 * Icelandic Women's Football League Cup: 2007, 2010 * Icelandic Women's Football League Cup runner-up: 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013 * Icelandic Women's Super Cup: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 * Icelandic Women's Super Cup runner-up: 2012 Florida State Seminoles * ACC: 2011, 2013, 2014 * ACC Regular Season: 2012, 2014 *

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

: 2014 FC Bayern Munich *

: 2015 Portland Thorns *

NWSL Shield The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a ...

(regular season champion): 2016 *

NWSL Championship The NWSL Championship is the annual championship game of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top-flight women's soccer league in the United States. It is the culmination of the NWSL playoffs, which is contested by the teams with the ...

(playoff champion): 2017 Selfoss * Icelandic Women's Super Cup: 2020 Individual *

Finalist: 2014

References

External links

* *
Portland Thorns player profile
*
Profile
at fussballtransfers.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brynjarsdottir, Dagny 1991 births Living people Dagny Brynjarsdottir Dagny Brynjarsdottir Dagny Brynjarsdottir Florida State Seminoles women's soccer players Dagny Brynjarsdottir Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Portland Thorns FC players National Women's Soccer League players Women's association football midfielders FC Bayern Munich (women) players West Ham United F.C. Women players Dagny Brynjarsdottir Dagny Brynjarsdottir Frauen-Bundesliga players Dagny Brynjarsdottir Dagny Brynjarsdottir Icelandic expatriate sportspeople in England Women's Super League players FIFA Women's Century Club UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players