Karólína Lea Vilhjálmsdóttir (born 8 August 2001) 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 plays as a midfielder for

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

and the Iceland national team. She is the niece of the Icelandic footballer

Gylfi Sigurðsson Gylfi Þór Sigurðsson (; transliterated as Gylfi Thor Sigurdsson; born 8 September 1989) is an Icelandic professional Association football, footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Besta deild karla club Knattspyrnufélagið Víkin ...

Club career

Karólína started her senior professional career with Icelandic club FH. She then moved to Breiðablik, where she won the

Besta deild kvenna The Besta deild kvenna () is the top-tier women's football league in Iceland. It features 10 teams that play a double round robin to decide the champion, which qualifies for a spot in the UEFA Women's Champions League. The 2022 season was the f ...

(Iceland league title) and Icelandic Cup in her first year. In 2019, she won the

Icelandic League Cup Icelandic League Cup may refer to: * Icelandic Men's Football League Cup The Icelandic Men's Football League Cup (Icelandic: Deildarbikar karla), also known as the Lengjubikar karla for sponsorship reasons, is a pre-season professional football c ...

and

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, in association football, basketball, handball, volleyball and rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competi ...

trophies and played

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

football for the first time, scoring two goals. Karólína won the league title for the second time with Breiðablik in 2020. In January 2021, Karólína signed with

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

. In June 2021, she won the

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 ...

with the team. It was announced on 10 February 2022 that she had extended her contract at

until 2025. Karólína won the Bundesliga title for the second time in the 2022-23 season. In July 2023, she joined

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

on loan in order to get more regular playing time. The 2023-24 season saw Karólína record her best Bundesliga goal tally to date of five goals. On 19 June 2024, Karólína signed another contract extension with Bayern until 2026 whilst also agreeing to have another season on loan at Leverkusen. In July 2025, after the end of her loan at Leverkusen, Karólína left Bayern Munich and moved permanently to

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

International career

Karólína has been capped several times for the Iceland national team. On 17 June 2019, she made her debut in a 2–0 friendly win over

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, replacing

Hlín Eiríksdóttir Hlín Eiríksdóttir (; born 12 June 2000) is an Icelandic footballer who plays as a midfielder for Women's Super League club Leicester City. She has been part of the Iceland women's national football team since 2018. Career Club Hlín made ...

in the 61st-minute. Karólína scored her first goal for Iceland in a 9–0 win over

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

on 17 September 2020. She was part of the Iceland squad that played at the

UEFA Women's Euro 2022 The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2022 or simply Euro 2022, was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champio ...

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 ...

. Iceland drew all three of their group stage games, with Karólína scoring in a 1–1 draw against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, but they failed to reach the knockout stage. In February 2023, Karólína featured in all three matches for Iceland as they won the

2023 Pinatar Cup The 2023 Pinatar Cup was the third edition of the Pinatar Cup, an international women's association football, football tournament. It was held in San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain from 15 to 21 February 2023. Iceland won the tournament for the first ...

. It was the first time the nation had won the tournament. On 13 June 2025, Karólína was called up to the Iceland squad for the

UEFA Women's Euro 2025 The 2025 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2025 or simply Euro 2025, will be the 14th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the wome ...

Personal life

Her maternal uncle,

, is a professional footballer.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Breiðablik *

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

* Icelandic Cup: 2018 *

: 2019 * Icelandic Women's Football Super Cup: 2019 ;Bayern Munich *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Iceland Women * Pinatar Cup:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

References

External links