Victory Dedicated to Atli Eðvaldsson’s Family

The Icelandic women’s national soccer team faced Slovakia last night at Laugardalsvöllur arena, Reykjavík, wearing black armbands in honor of Atli Eðvaldsson, former coach of the Icelandic men’s national soccer team, who passed away yesterday, mbl.is reports. The Icelandic team beat Slovakia 1:0 and dedicated the victory to Sif Atladóttir, Atli’s daughter, and her family. Sif is a member of their team, but she did not play with them last night.

Elín Metta Jensen scored the game’s only goal. This was Iceland’s second qualifying match for the UEFA Women’s EURO, to take place in England in July of 2021. The Icelandic women played their first game on Thursday against Hungary and won, 4:1.

Atli Eðvaldsson’s death was announced yesterday by the Football Association of Iceland, shortly before the game against Slovakia began. He was 62 and had been battling cancer. In addition to having been coach of the Icelandic men’s national soccer team, he had been the team’s captain and worked for years as a professional soccer player – mainly in Germany.

Atli played 70 international matches for Iceland and coached the national team from 2000 till 2003. In 1980, he signed with Borussia Dortmund in Germany and played with them one season. After that, he joined Fortuna Düsseldorf, where he played 122 games and scored 38 goals 1981-1985. He was the first foreign player to score five goals in one game in the Bundesliga, in a 5:1 victory against Eintracht Frankfurt.

That was followed by three years with Uerdingen. He then returned to Iceland in 1988, but also played for Düsseldorf in Germany and later for Gençlerbirliği in Turkey. After having coached the national team, he coached several soccer teams – most of them in Iceland - until last summer.

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