Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir (born 25 July 1986) is an Icelandic former

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 striker. She is the all-time top goalscorer of the Iceland national team and competed for her country at 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 ...

s in

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 ...

. In a club career sometimes disrupted by injury, Margrét Lára represented ÍBV 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 ...

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

and

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

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 Linköpings and

Kristianstads DFF Kristianstads DFF () is a women's association football club from Kristianstad, Sweden. The club is affiliated to the Scania Football Association. History Wä IF was founded in 1935 and their women team played from 1990 to 1994 and again in 199 ...

of the

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 ...

. Margrét Lára is the elder sister of

Elísa Viðarsdóttir Elísa Viðarsdóttir (born 26 May 1991) is an Icelandic footballer who plays as a defender in the Úrvalsdeild for Valur and the Iceland women's national football team. She is the younger sister of Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir, Iceland's r ...

, who also played for Iceland's national team.

Early life

Margrét Lára was born in

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyja ...

, Iceland to Viðar Elíasson and his wife Guðmunda Bjarnadóttir. Viðar had played football for ÍBV and later became chairman of the club. As well as Margrét Lára, both her brothers Bjarni Geir Viðarsson and Sindri Viðarsson played football for ÍBV, as did her only sister Elísa.

Club career

Making her Úrvalsdeild kvenna debut as a 15-year-old, Margrét Lára developed into a prolific striker at ÍBV. In 2004, she switched to rivals Valur 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 ...

and continued to score regularly. She won a league and cup

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

with Valur in 2006. Margrét Lára's goalscoring record in Iceland meant that several leading clubs in Europe and America pursued her

transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies * ...

. The Germans

FCR 2001 Duisburg FCR 2001 Duisburg (full name: ''Fußballclub Rumeln 2001 Duisburg'') was a German women's football club from Duisburg. The first team played in the Bundesliga (women), Bundesliga. They originate from a women's team formed in 1977 under the umbrel ...

won the race for her signature and in October 2006 she scored twice in Duisburg's 3–2 win at holders Turbine Potsdam in the

Frauen DFB Pokal The DFB-Pokal Frauen is the main national women's football cup competition in Germany, held annually by the German Football Association in knockout format. It was created in 1980, and since 1991 includes Eastern teams as well. The most recent cham ...

. Margrét Lára failed to settle in Germany and returned to Valur in January 2007, citing

homesickness Homesickness is the distress caused by being away from home.Kerns, Brumariu, Abraham. Kathryn A., Laura E., Michelle M.(2009/04/13). Homesickness at summer camp. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54. Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home ...

. A record-breaking season in 2007 saw Margrét Lára hit 38 goals in 16 league matches for Valur. She was also named Iceland's Sports Personality of the Year, ahead of the male footballer

Eiður Guðjohnsen Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen (transliterated as Eidur Smari Gudjohnsen; born 15 September 1978) is an Icelandic professional football coach and former player who played as a forward. Eiður saw his greatest success in England and Spain with Chels ...

. As well as her scoring feats at domestic level, she thrived in the

UEFA Women's Cup 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. T ...

, finishing as overall top goalscorer in 2005–06, 2007–08 and 2008–09. In the

2008 WPS International Draft The 2008 WPS International Draft took place on September 24, 2008. It was the first international draft held by Women's Professional Soccer to assign the WPS rights of international players to the American-based teams. For the 2009 season, teams ...

, Margrét Lára was selected by the

Los Angeles Sol The Los Angeles Sol was an American professional association football, soccer club that was based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The team was co-owned and operated by Anschutz E ...

but decided not to join the

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 ...

team. Instead she moved to Sweden and signed for

Linköpings FC Linköpings may refer to: *Linköpings ASS, Linköpings Allmänna Simsällskap is a Swedish swim team *Linköpings FC, an association football club *Linköpings FF, premier men's football team *Linköpings HC, Linköpings Hockey Club See also< ...

, remarking: "I will absolutely try to play in USA 'sic''some time, but where I am career wise right now it feels better to play in Sweden." At Linköpings Margrét Lára struggled to replicate her earlier form and started four of her 12 matches in the first half of the season, scoring twice. She wanted more playing time ahead of the 2009 European Championships so moved to

during the mid-season break. Although Kristianstads were a lower ranked team, she was happy to move in order to reunite with Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir – who had been her coach at Valur. M L Vidarsdottir vs Tyreso

She won the Damallsvenskan top scorer award in 2011, tied at 16 goals with

Manon Melis Gabriëlla Maria "Manon" Melis (; born 31 August 1986) is a Dutch manager of Women's association football, women's football development at Feyenoord and a former professional footballer who played as a forward (association football), forward. Sh ...

of LdB FC Malmö. In October 2011 she signed for German champions Turbine Potsdam. Transferring outside the

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

meant she was ineligible for league and Champions League matches until 1 January 2012. A persistent

hamstring injury Straining of the hamstring, also known as a pulled hamstring, is defined as an excessive stretch or tear of muscle fibers and related tissues. Hamstring injuries are common in athletes participating in many sports. Track and field athletes are p ...

marred Margrét Lára's second spell in German football. After scoring one league goal she was allowed to rejoin Kristianstads at the end of the season. In September 2012 a Norwegian doctor diagnosed Margrét Lára's longstanding thigh injury as

compartment syndrome Compartment syndrome is a serious medical condition in which increased pressure within a Fascial compartment, body compartment compromises blood flow and tissue function, potentially leading to permanent damage if not promptly treated. There are ...

. She immediately scheduled surgery to fix the issue which had inhibited her training for several seasons and caused her to operate at 70% of her true level. Before the

2013 Damallsvenskan The 2013 Damallsvenskan, part of the 2013 Swedish football season, is the 26th season of Damallsvenskan since its establishment in 1988. The season began on 13 April 2013 and ends on 20 October 2013. Tyresö FF are the defending champions, having ...

season, Kristianstads gave a trial to Margrét Lára's visiting sister Elísa in a pre-season friendly, but had no immediate plans to sign the younger Viðarsdóttir to a contract. Margrét Lára remained sidelined for several more weeks following her thigh operation. She scored 13 goals in 22 Damallsvenskan appearances in 2013, but announced her

pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring gestation, gestates inside a woman's uterus. A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Conception (biology), Conception usually occurs ...

in December which ruled her out of Kristianstads' 2014 campaign. Following the birth of her first child, Margrét Lára returned to training with Kristianstads in December 2014. After playing in the

2015 Damallsvenskan 2015 Damallsvenskan was the 27th season of the Swedish women's association football top division, Damallsvenskan. It was played between 11 April 2015 and 18 October 2015. FC Rosengård were the defending champions, having won the competition in 201 ...

season she made the decision to leave Kristianstads and returned to Iceland. In November 2015, she completed her move back to Iceland by signing a two-year contract for a second spell with Valur. On 30 July 2019, she became the second player – after

Olga Færseth Andrea Olga Færseth (born 6 October 1975) is an Icelandic former multi-sport athlete. She was a member of the Icelandic national teams in both football and basketball. In 1994, Olga won the national championship and national cup in both footba ...

– to score 200 goals in the Úrvalsdeild kvenna. On 26 November 2019, Margrét Lára announced her retirement from football.

International career

Margrét Lára made her first appearance for the Iceland senior national team on 14 June 2003, in a

2005 UEFA Women's Championship qualification The qualification for the UEFA Women's Euro 2005 was held between 26 March 2003 & 27 November 2004. The first-placed of the group stage qualified directly. The second-placed and the two best third-placed teams played in two playoff matches for th ...

match against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Laugardalsvöllur Laugardalsvöllur (, or more precisely 'Laugardalur Stadium') is Iceland's national stadium, national football stadium and the home venue for the Iceland national football team located in Reykjavík. It has a seating capacity of 9,500 and about ...

. She scored four minutes after entering play as a 66th-minute substitute in Iceland's 4–1 win. Margret Lara October 2012

qualifying Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for

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 ...

, Margrét Lára was the competition's top scorer with 12 goals. She scored the only goal in a home win over

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

as Iceland reached their first major international tournament at any level. At the final tournament in Finland, she played in all three group games as Iceland made a first round exit. Four years later, 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 Margrét Lára 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 ...

. She had contributed 11 goals during qualifying, including goals in both legs of the play-off win over

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. In Iceland's opening match in

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 41,388 inhabitants in 2020 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

, Margrét Lára struck a late penalty to secure a 1–1 draw with

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

which gave Iceland their first ever point in a European Championship finals. It was her 70th goal in her 89th cap. The team qualified for the quarter-finals, where they were beaten 4–0 by 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 ...

. With Margrét Lára on

maternity leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity leave ...

, incoming national coach

Freyr Alexandersson Freyr Alexandersson (born 18 November 1982) is an Icelandic association football, football Coach (sports), coach and former player who currently manages Eliteserien club SK Brann. He was the manager of the Iceland women's national football team ...

appointed

Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir (born 29 September 1990) is an Icelandic professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Saudi Women's Premier League club Al Qadsiah FC (women), Al Qadsiah. Sara Björk was part of the Iceland women's nationa ...

as the new

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

in 2014. After the birth of her first child Margrét Lára was swiftly recalled to Iceland's squad for the

2015 Algarve Cup The 2015 Algarve Cup was the 22nd edition of the Algarve Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Portugal. It took place on 4–11 March. Format Because of the number of competitive teams this year, the format was changed ...

. Her last international game came on 8 October 2019 where she scored one goal in Iceland's 6–0 victory against

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 ...

Career statistics

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

Honours

Valur * Úrvalsdeild kvenna: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2019 *

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 ...

: 2006 Individual * Úrvalsdeild kvenna top scorer: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 *

top scorer: 2011 *

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. ...

top scorer: 2006, 2008, 2009

References

External links