Viðar Örn Kjartansson (; born 11 March 1990) is an Icelandic 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 plays as a striker for Besta deild karla club KA Akureyri.

Club career

Viðar made his debut for Selfoss in 2006, aged 16. He joined Icelandic top division club ÍBV in 2009 but rejoined Selfoss after a short stint with ÍBV. He joined Icelandic club

Fylkir Íþróttafélagið Fylkir (, ) is a multi-sport club in Árbær, in the eastern part of Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. It features departments in football, handball, volleyball, gymnastics and karate. Kit The Fylkir official home kit is ...

in 2013 and after a very prolific goalscoring season in the Icelandic top flight, he joined Norwegian club Vålerenga in December 2013. Viðar scored his first goal for Vålerenga in a 3–1 home win over Bodø/Glimt on 6. April 2014. After his first year in Norway, Viðar ended up as the top scorer in the Norwegian top league with 25 goals scored in 29 games. On 22 January 2015, Viðar transferred to

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

side Jiangsu Guoxin-Sainty. Jiangsu Guoxin-Sainty signed him for €3.5 million. On 7 March 2015, he made his debut and scored his first goal for Jiangsu in the first league match of the 2015 season which Jiangsu Sainty lost to Shanghai SIPG 2–1. Viðar played a vital part in the Chinese FA cup, and was the club's top goalscorer in the cup with four goals, which helped Jiangsu to win their first trophy in history of the club. On 27 January 2016, he signed for Swedish club

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 ...

. On 30 August 2016, he transferred to Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv. He has won the 2017–18 Toto Cup with the team. He signed a four-year deal with the club. On 26 October 2016, Kjartansson won the Swedish championship as Malmö FF sealed the title in his absence. On 31 August 2018, he signed a four-year contract with the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

FC Rostov FC Rostov () is a Russian professionalism in association football, professional football club based in Rostov-on-Don. The club competes in the Russian Premier League, playing their home matches at the Rostov Arena. History Soviet era (1930-199 ...

, joining his compatriots Ragnar Sigurðsson, Björn Bergmann Sigurðarson and Sverrir Ingi Ingason at the club. He scored his first two goals for the club on 26 September 2018 in a Russian Cup 4–0 victory over a third-tier club FC Syzran-2003. On 18 March 2019, Viðar signed a five-month loan deal with Hammarby IF in Allsvenskan. On 20 July 2019, he joined Russian club

FC Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded 1958 in Russia, in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003 Russia ...

on loan for the 2019–20 season. He played 16 league games and scored one goal during the first half of the season, as Rubin Kazan was placed 13th in the table, before terminating his loan deal on 11 January 2020. On 27 January 2020, Rostov announced that he was loaned to Turkish club

Yeni Malatyaspor Yeni Malatyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Malatya. The club plays in the TFF First League, which is the second tier of football in the country. History Founded in 1986 as Malatya Belediyespor. Its primary colo ...

. On 28 August 2020, he returned to Vålerenga and signed a contract until 2023. On 1 August 2022, he joined Atromitos on a two-year deal. He scored in his debut against OFI, helping to a 3–1 home win in the season's opener season's opener.

International career

Viðar made his senior international debut for

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 ...

in 2014, starting as a centre forward in a friendly against

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 ...

. He scored his first international goal in a friendly against the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

in January 2016. Despite a strong run for his club team

, Viðar was overlooked for a spot in Iceland's Euro 2016 squad and instead put on the team's standby list. His second international goal came in a friendly against

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

in November 2017. Viðar once again missed out on playing in an international championship, when he was left out of Iceland's World Cup 2018 squad, serving as a non-squad reserve. Viðar announced his retirement from international duty in October 2018 at the age of 28, having won 19 caps and scored two goals. In March 2019, Viðar reversed his decision to retire from the national team and was called up to represent Iceland in the

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, intended to be playe ...

games against

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

and

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 ...

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Jiangsu Sainty *

Chinese FA Cup The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. The current holders are Shanghai Port, having beaten Shandong Taishan in 2024 for their first title. H ...

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 ...

Malmö FF *

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 ...

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 ...

KA Akureyri *Bikarkeppni karla: 2024 Maccabi Tel Aviv *

Toto Cup The Israel Toto Cup (, ''Gvia Ha'Toto'') is an association football tournament that features clubs in the two highest divisions in Israel: the Israeli Premier League Ligat ha'Al, Ligat Ha'Al; and the Israeli 2nd division Liga Leumit. Both of the ...

: 2017–18 Individual *

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 ...

Top goalscorer:

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 ...

* Eliteserien Forward of the Year:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

* Eliteserien Top goalscorer:

Norwegian Cup The Norwegian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football tournament in the country. The tournament ...

Top goalscorer:

* Allsvenskan Forward of the Year:

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional association football league in Israel and the highest level of the Israeli football league system. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and rele ...

Top goalscorer: 2016–17 *

ONE 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

magazine player of the week: January 2018

References

External links