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Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson (born 8 August 1979) is an Icelandic retired
handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...
player and current coach of
VfL Gummersbach VfL Gummersbach is a professional handball club from the German city of Gummersbach, North Rhine-Westphalia. Currently, VfL Gummersbach competes in the Handball-Bundesliga and the DHB-Pokal. The club has seen great success, especially from the ...
. A captain of the
Iceland men's national handball team The Icelandic men's national handball team represents Iceland in international men's handball. It is controlled by the Icelandic Handball Association. Honours Competitive record Champions   Runners-up   Third place& ...
, Guðjón Valur broke the world record for most goals scored in international men's handball in 2018. He won silver with the Icelandic handball team at the
2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...
, as well as bronze at the 2010 European Championship. He was included in the
European Handball Federation The European Handball Federation (EHF) is the umbrella organisation for European handball. Founded on 17 November 1991, it is made of 50 member federations and two associated federations (England and Scotland), and is headquartered in Vienna, Au ...
Hall of Fame in 2023.


Club career

Guðjón started his handball career at a young age with Grótta on Seltjarnarnes. He also played with KA Akureyri and lost the Icelandic championship final in 2001. KA won the championship final the year after he left. After that, he began his professional career in Germany with Essen. In 2005, Gudjón Valur won the European championship with Essen. Later that year, he joined Gummersbach. At Gummersbach, he was joined by the Icelandic national handball coach Alfreð Gíslason, former Icelandic sportsman of the year, who led Gummersbach's training from 2006 until 2008. In April 2020, Guðjón announced his retirement from handball.


International career

At the World Championship in handball in Germany in January–February 2007, Gudjón Valur scored the most goals (total of 66). He also played the most minutes of any player in the competition. On average, Gudjón Valur played 58 and a half minutes out of 60 in each game. However, the Icelandic team, which played well, was unlucky and ended in 8th place. Gudjón Valur is one of the most experienced players on the Icelandic national team. Guðjón Valur was named the Icelandic Sportsperson of the Year in 2006. In August 2008 Guðjón Valur played with the Icelandic national team at the Olympics in Beijing, China and won the silver. Gudjon was second top scorer of the Icelandic national team with 43 goals and was named in a seven-man Excellent Olympics. In 2010 Gudjon Valur won his second award for the national team in the tournament when the Icelandic national team won the bronze in the Europe Championship in Austria 2010. Gudjon Valur also played with the Icelandic national team in World Championships in Sweden 2011 and was second top scorer of Iceland with 47 goals. A year later, at the
2012 European Men's Handball Championship The 2012 EHF European Men's Handball Championship was the tenth edition of the men's continental handball tournament, which was held in Serbia between 15 and 29 January 2012. Sixteen teams qualified for the event, including host nation Serbia, ...
Guðjón played in top form again, being the best Icelandic scorer and the sixth overall of the tournament. The national team, however, slightly underperformed and finished only tenth, still Guðjón Valur made it to the All-Star team as the best left wing of the championship. On 7 January 2018 playing against Germany, with 1798 goals in 343 matches Guðjón Valur broke the world record for most goals scored in international men's handball. At the end of his career he had scored a tally of 1879 goals in 365 matches for the Icelandic men's national handball team. The previous record holder was the Hungarian Péter Kovács, who scored 1797 goals for the Hungarian team.


Managerial career

On 3 May 2020, it was announced that Guðjón would take over as manager of 2.Bundesliga club VfL Gummersbach. Guðjón had previously played for Gummersbach from 2005 to 2007. In 2021/2022 they won the 2.Bundesliga and were promoted to
Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...
. In 2022/2023 he was awarded Trainer of the year in Bundesliga.


See also

* List of handballers with 1000 or more international goals


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sigurdsson, Gudjon Valur Handball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson 1979 births Living people Olympic medalists in handball Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson Icelandic expatriate handball players in Germany Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson Handball-Bundesliga players Rhein-Neckar Löwen players VfL Gummersbach players THW Kiel players Liga ASOBAL players FC Barcelona Handbol players Icelandic expatriate handball players in Denmark Icelandic expatriate handball players in France Icelandic expatriate handball players in Spain