Kári Árnason (born 13 October 1982) is an Icelandic former 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 played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He has played for

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, , is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum Skansen, the small resident ...

, AGF Aarhus, Esbjerg fB, Plymouth Argyle,

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

(two spells), Rotherham United,

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

, Omonia and Gençlerbirliği. Capable of playing in midfield or defence, Kári has represented

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 ...

at senior level since 2005, making 90 appearances and scoring 6 goals in the process. He represented Iceland at UEFA Euro 2016 and at the

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

Club career

Early years

Born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Kári began his career as a youngster in 1999 with Víkingur at his home town of

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 ...

, where he spent the first five years in his career. Arnason also played for the Gonzaga University Bulldogs in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...

from 2002 to 2003. He brought a different style of football to Spokane, the likes of which Bulldog legends Steve Owens and Trevor Conrad had never seen. During a candid interview with Gonzaga Bulletin reporter Ryan McAteer he did admit "Americans though, are in much better shape and can run forever." He also played one season for Adelphi University in 2004. After putting together a string of impressive performances in midfield with Víkingur at an early age in the 2004 season, Kári was signed by Swedish

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

club Djurgårdens IF in 2004, where he won the Swedish league and cup double in 2005. He was signed by Danish club AGF Aarhus in 2007 and spent two years with the club, along with a spell on loan at fellow Superliga club Esbjerg fB.

Plymouth Argyle

Kári had a trial at English

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, i ...

side Plymouth Argyle in the summer of 2009, and after impressing in a couple of friendly matches he signed a one-year contract with the club. He made his debut in August 2009 against Derby County and established himself as a first-team regular at the heart of the club's defence. He scored his first goal for the club against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

on 28 December 2009 at Home Park, to become the 500th player to score a league goal since the club became professional in 1903. Kári signed a two-year contract extension in January 2010, after a string of consistent performances, to keep him at the club until the summer of 2012.

Aberdeen

Kári joined Heart of Midlothian on trial during their pre-season trip to Italy in June 2011, having been released by Plymouth's administrator after refusing to defer his wages for June. He was not offered a contract by Hearts and then began a trial with fellow

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

club

. He signed for Aberdeen on 18 July and received international clearance four days later. He made his debut in a 0–0 draw against St Johnstone on 23 July and scored his first goal for Aberdeen on 15 October, the opener in a 3–1 win against Dundee United. In the return New Firm fixture on 2 January 2012, Árnason scored the winning goal from 35-yards at Tannadice. He was offered a new contract in December to extend his stay with the club beyond the 2011–12 season. His goal against Rangers in a 1–1 draw at

Ibrox Stadium Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Scottish Premiership team Rangers, Ibrox is the third-largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated ca ...

took his tally for the campaign to three. Kári rejected Aberdeen's offer of a new contract towards the end of January and manager Craig Brown said that he expected him to leave in the summer. "We made Kári an exceptionally good offer. However, the player believes he can earn a better deal elsewhere," said an Aberdeen spokesperson.

Rotherham United

Kári Árnason joined Rotherham United in June 2012. He played over 100 games for the club, where he earned back-to-back promotions from League Two to the Championship. He played the majority of the games in defense, the others in midfield.

Malmö FF

On 29 June 2015, Kári returned to his country of birth, signing a two-and-a-half-year contract with

. Malmö FF sold their two starting centre-backs in the same transfer window, and he formed a new centre-back pairing with Rasmus Bengtsson. The team continued to struggle in their league campaign, but qualified for the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League group stage. In a team with many newly signed players, Kári had quickly become a leader and was appointed vice-captain by Åge Hareide. The team was able to get back to its winning ways during the 2016 season. With captain Markus Rosenberg injured, Kári wore the armband during the final title run and led the team to secure the

title with two games to play.

AC Omonia

On 30 January 2017, Kári joined

AC Omonia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (; ''Athlitikós Sýllogos Omónoia Lefkosías''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (also Romanization of Greek, transliterated as Omonoia), is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional multi-sport club, esta ...

. He had 8 appearances with the club. He was given a transfer to

after expressing his wish for the transfer and an agreement based on the demands of Omonia Nicosia.

Return to Aberdeen

On 14 July 2017, Kári rejoined

, for whom he had played in the 2011–12 season. He was released by Aberdeen in May 2018, at the end of his contract.

Gençlerbirliği

On 24 July 2018, Kári agreed terms with Turkish First League side Gençlerbirliği, signing a one-year deal.

Return to Víkingur

At the end of his contract at Gençlerbirliği, Kári rejoined the club he played for as a youth, Víkingur, signing a two-year deal until the end of the 2020 season.

International career

Kári Árnason was called up to the senior

squad in March 2005 for the game against

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

and he made his debut four days later 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 ...

. He scored his first goal for his country seven months later in October 2005 against

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 ...

at Råsunda. He was selected by Lars Lagerbäck for UEFA Euro 2016 where Iceland made their first ever appearance in a major tournament. In the first game he marked

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

out of the game in their draw with

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, the team that eventually won the entire tournament. In their last group stage game Iceland were able to beat

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

to advance to the knock-out stages, and he notched an assist and was selected as man of the match. He once again assisted a goal in Iceland's upset victory over

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 ...

in the round of 16. In May 2018 he was named in Iceland's 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Career statistics

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

Honours

Víkingur FC * Icelandic Cup:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

* Icelandic Premier Division:

Malmö FF *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Rotherham United * Football League Two runner-up: 2012–13 * Football League One play-offs: 2013–14 Djurgården *

:Archived copy

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

* Svenska Cupen:

References

External links

* *
Danish Superliga player statistics
at danskfodbold.com
Malmö FF profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnason, Kari 1982 births Living people Kari Arnason Kari Arnason Kari Arnason Kari Arnason Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Aarhus Gymnastikforening players Esbjerg fB players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Aberdeen F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Malmö FF players AC Omonia players English Football League players Danish Superliga players Scottish Premier League players Kari Arnason Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Kari Arnason Kari Arnason Kari Arnason Kari Arnason UEFA Euro 2016 players 2018 FIFA World Cup players Scottish Professional Football League players Cypriot First Division players Allsvenskan players TFF 1. Lig players Kari Arnason 21st-century Icelandic sportsmen