Sigurður Gunnar Þorsteinsson (born 8 July 1988) is an Icelandic former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. Nicknamed Ísafjarðartröllið (English: The Ísafjördur

Troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

), he won the Icelandic championship four times during his career, in 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2023. Outside of Iceland, Sigurður has played professionally in Greece and Sweden.

Playing career

Born and raised in

Ísafjörður Ísafjörður (pronounced , meaning ''ice fjord'', literally ''fjord of ices'') is a town in the northwest of Iceland. The oldest part of Ísafjörður with the town centre is located on a spit of sand, or ''eyri'', in Skutulsfjörður, a fjord ...

in the

Westfjords The Westfjords or West Fjords (, ) is a large peninsula in northwestern Iceland and an administrative region, the least populous in the country. It lies on the Denmark Strait, facing the east coast of Greenland. It is connected to the rest of I ...

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 ...

, he played youth basketball for his hometown team

KFÍ The Vestri men's basketball team, commonly known as Vestri, is a basketball team based in Ísafjörður, Iceland. The club was founded in 1965 as Körfuknattleiksfélag Ísafjarðar and held that name until it merged with newly founded Íþrótta ...

before playing for the senior team, first with its B-team in the 2. deild karla and later with the main squad in the top-tier Úrvalsdeild karla. In 2006, he joined

Keflavík Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129. In 1995, Keflavík merged with nearby Njar ...

where he played until 2011 when he joined

Grindavík Grindavík () is a fishing town in the Southern Peninsula district of Iceland, not far from Þorbjörn, a tuya (a type of flat-topped, steep-sided volcano). It is one of the few towns with a harbour on this coast. Most of the inhabitants work ...

. After winning two national champions in four seasons, he joined the

Solna Vikings Solna Vikings was a Swedish professional basketball club with a men's team and a women's team. Both played in their respective top leagues: the women in the Damligan, and the men in the Swedish Basketball League. History The Solna Vikings was ...

in 2014. In September 2015, Sigurður signed with the Greek 2nd Division team Machites Doxas Pefkon, where he averaged 11.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. In August 2016, Sigurður signed with the Greek 2nd Division team A.E.L. 1964. Sigurður rejoined Grindavík in August 2017. For the season he averaged 12.8 points and 8.8 rebounds. In July 2018 he left the club. On 17 August 2018, Sigurður signed with ÍR. On 1 April 2019, he scored 16 points in ÍR's victory in game 5 of its first-round playoff series against second seeded

Njarðvík Njarðvík () is a town in southwestern Iceland, on the peninsula of Reykjanes. As of 2009, its population was 4,400. History In 1995 it merged with the town of Keflavík and the village of Hafnir to form the new municipality of Reykjanesbær. ...

. With the victory, ÍR became the third team in the Úrvalsdeild history to come back from a 0-2 deficit and win a best-of-five series. After helping ÍR reach the Úrvalsdeild finals, where it lost to KR, Sigurður was named to the Úrvalsdeild Domestic All-First Team. In June 2019, Sigurður signed with

BC Orchies Basket Club d'Orchies or just BC Orchies is a basketball club based in Orchies, France that plays in the NM1. Results {, class="wikitable" style="font-size:85%" , - bgcolor= !Season !Tier !League ! !Postseason ! French Cup !European competiti ...

of the NM1. Two days before the first game of the season, the French Basketball Federation declared that the Orchies did not fulfill their required financial obligations and as a result Sigurður was released from his contract. On 23 October 2019, Sigurður returned to ÍR, signing a two-year contract. Only 9 minutes into his first game back, he suffered a season ending injury after tearing a

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint, wrist joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in ...

in his knee. After the season, ÍR terminated the contract with Sigurður, leaving him a free agent. In August 2020, Sigurður sued ÍR for missing salary payments and claimed the team owed him over 2 million ISK. ÍR had stopped paying Sigurður his salary after the injury, claiming he was not fulfilling his end of the contract. On 17 November 2020, the District Court of Reykjavík ruled that ÍR owed Sigurður two million ISK in back pays plus penalties. On 10 June 2020, Sigurður signed with Úrvalsdeild club Höttur. In 22 games, he averaged 12.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. Despite his performance, Höttur was relegated after a loss in the last game of the regular season. On 31 May 2021, Sigurður signed with Tindastóll. On 11 November 2021 he became the 11th player to grab 2,000 career rebounds in the Úrvalsdeild. On 30 April, he had 20 points and 9 rebounds in Tindastóll's game four series deciding victory against

in the semi-finals of the Úrvalsdeild playoffs. With the victory, he became the first player to advance to the finals with four different teams. On 9 May, he became the Úrvalsdeild finals all-time leader in blocked shots, breaking Friðrik Erlendur Stefánsson's record of 150 blocks. He helped Tindastóll to the 2022 Úrvalsdeild finals where they lost to Valur 2–3. In 2023, he won his fourth Icelandic championship after Tindastóll defeated Valur 3–2 in a finals rematch. Following the season, he announced that he would not return to Tindastóll. In August 2023, Sigurður signed with his hometown team Vestri. Following the season, where Vestri lost in the 2. deild finals, he announced his retirement from basketball.

Icelandic national team

Between 2007 and 2019, Sigurður has played 58 games for the Icelandic men's national team. He did not make the 12 man roster for the

FIBA Eurobasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. In May 2019, he was called up to the national team for the first time since July 2017, ahead of the

Games of the Small States of Europe The Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) is a biennial multi-sport event, launched by the Republic of San Marino, organized by and featuring the National Olympic Committees of nine European small state, small states since 1985. The Games a ...

Awards and honours

Club

* 3x Icelandic League champion (2008, 2012, 2013) * 4× Icelandic Super Cup winner (2008, 2011-2013) * Icelandic Basketball Cup winner (2014) *2x Company Cup winner (2006, 2011)

Individual

* 6x Úrvalsdeild Domestic All-First Team (2009, 2011–2013, 2019, 2021) * Úrvalsdeild Young Player of the Year (2008) * 2x

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 ...

blocks leader (2010, 2019) *

Greek A2 Basket League The Greek A2 Basket League (), is a professional basketball league in Greece. It is the 2nd-tier level of pro competition, among clubs in the country. It is organized by the Hellenic Basketball Federation (E.O.K.). The league is also known as th ...

blocks leader (2017) * Icelandic Cup MVP (2014)

References

External links