Guðbjörg "Gugga" Gunnarsdóttir (born 18 May 1985) is an Icelandic

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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for Swedish

Damallsvenskan The (; ), known as OBOS for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is one of the best women's leagues in the world, and was founded in 1988. The division consists of a league of 14 teams. From 2013, t ...

club Eskilstuna United and Iceland's national team. She represented her country in the

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 ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

editions of the

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years and one year after the men's UEFA European Championship first held in 1984, is the main competition in women's association football between nationa ...

. At club level Guðbjörg has previously represented

LSK Kvinner FK LSK Kvinner Fotballklubb is a Norway, Norwegian women's football (soccer), women's football club from Lillestrøm. They currently play in Toppserien, the top division of Norwegian football. The club was founded as Setskog/Høland Fotballklubb on ...

and

Avaldsnes IL Avaldsnes Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Avaldsnes, Karmøy, Rogaland. It was founded on 16 June 1937. The club has sections for football and handball. Women's football The women's team began play in 1989, winning the 1st Division o ...

of the Norwegian

Toppserien The Toppserien is the top level of women's association football in Norway. It was founded in 1984. History Women's league football was introduced on a county basis in 1977. These leagues acted as qualification for the regional (South) league in ...

Turbine Potsdam 1. Frauenfußballclub Turbine Potsdam 71 e. V., commonly known as 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam (or Turbine Potsdam outside of Germany), is a German women's football club located in Potsdam, Brandenburg. They are one of the most successful women's footb ...

of 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 ...

and FH and Valur of the Icelandic

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 ...

Club career

Beginning her club career with FH, Guðbjörg made 23

appearances before signing for Valur in summer 2002. At Valur she overcame a series of injuries to claim four Úrvalsdeild winner's medals and one Icelandic Women's Cup winner's medal. She moved to Swedish

club Djurgårdens IF Dam ahead of the 2009 season. Gudbjorg Gunnarsdottir v Tyreso

Guðbjörg developed an affinity for Djurgården and was proud to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

the club. But several other players left due to economic downsizing and when the club was

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

in 2012 she had to leave to protect her national team place. In early 2013 Guðbjörg moved to Norway to play for wealthy

newcomers

. She also had offers from clubs in Sweden, Germany and Russia. After one season in Norway, Guðbjörg announced a move to the German club

in December 2013. She signed a contract to run for one and a half seasons from 1 January 2014, telling

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

.com: "If one of the best teams in the world makes you an offer, you cannot say no." Unable to dislodge

Ann-Katrin Berger Ann-Katrin Berger (born 9 October 1990) is a German professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Gotham FC in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the Germany national team, where she has been the number one since 2024. She ha ...

from the starting goalkeeper position at Turbine, Guðbjörg moved back to Norway with

in July 2014. There she would compete with Nora Neset Gjøen for a place in the team. In November 2015 Guðbjörg won the

Norwegian Women's Cup The Norwegian Women's Cup () is a single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Norwegian women's association football, football. It has been organised annually since 1978. The final is usually played on a Saturday, the day before the ...

, playing in LSK's 3–2 final win over her former club Avaldsnes. The following month she announced that she had left LSK and returned to Djurgården, who had been promoted back into the Damallsvenskan for the following season. Declaring "it feels great to be back", Guðbjörg looked forward to challenging Susanne Nilsson for a place in the team. She missed most of the 2019 and 2020 seasons due to the birth of her twins. In January 2021, Guðbjörg signed with Norwegian

club

Arna-Bjørnar Arna-Bjørnar Fotball is a Norwegian football club from Arna, Bergen. It was founded in late 2000 as a merger between the football branches from ''IL Bjørnar'' and ''Arna T&IL'', and replaced Bjørnar IL in the league system from 2001. The ...

International career

UEFA13 IS 13 Gunnarsdottir Gudbjorg 130714 ICE-GER 0-3 213745 4378

Guðbjörg made her senior international debut 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 ...

in a 5–1 friendly win over

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

at the

Egilshöll Egilshöll (, ), also known as Egilshöllin (), is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment facility located in the Grafarvogur district of Iceland's capital Reykjavík. It features three football pitches, an ice rink, school sports hall, gym, sho ...

Arena in March 2004. At

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 The 2009 UEFA Women's Championship, or just Women's Euro 2009, was played in Finland between 23 August and 10 September 2009. The host was appointed on 11 July 2006, in a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Berlin and the Finnish proposal won over ...

, Guðbjörg played in one match as Iceland were eliminated in the first round. National team

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Siggi Eyjólfsson selected Guðbjörg in the Iceland squad for

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 ...

, while rival goalkeeper

Þóra Björg Helgadóttir Þóra Björg Helgadóttir (born 5 May 1981), commonly Anglicised as Thora Helgadottir, is an Icelandic former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Trained at university level in the United States, she formerly played for four seasons with D ...

was recovering from a hamstring injury. Guðbjörg took the goalkeeping position at the final tournament, playing in all three group matches and the 4–0 quarter-final defeat to hosts

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The Swedish press hailed her as one of the best players at the competition.

Honours

*Valur: *

: 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 *

Icelandic Women's Cup The Icelandic Women's Football Cup () is the national women's football cup competition in Iceland. The first edition of the cup was played out in 1981. List of finals The list of finals: By team See also *Icelandic Men's Football Cup Refer ...

: 2003, 2006 *LSK Kvinner: *

: 2014, 2015 *

: 2015, 2014

References

External links

* *
Profile
at Turbine Potsdam {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunnarsdottir, Gudbjorg 1985 births Living people Gudbjorg Gunnarsdottir Gudbjorg Gunnarsdottir Gudbjorg Gunnarsdottir Gudbjorg Gunnarsdottir Gudbjorg Gunnarsdottir Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Djurgårdens IF Fotboll (women) players Damallsvenskan players Expatriate women's footballers in Norway 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam players Frauen-Bundesliga players Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Gudbjorg Gunnarsdottir Toppserien players Avaldsnes IL players LSK Kvinner FK players Gudbjorg Gunnarsdottir Women's association football goalkeepers UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players