Gylfi Sigurdsson- a star in the making

Everybody knows that Iceland is a small European island country and has a very small population of just 32, 5000. Small glaciers, the largest waterfall in Europe and volcanic eruptions are the only reasons of headlines when it comes to Iceland.

When we talk about Icelandic football, there’s a very prominent name comes to our mind, Eidur Gudjohnsen. This name simply highlights the fact that the small country has never been famous for producing football geniuses but has given the game a few gifted
individuals. Ask any Icelandic teen about his/her idol and Eidur would the name that would come out of their mouths automatically. Eidur had won titles in Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven, for Chelsea and for Spanish giants Barcelona. For Barcelona, he has even
won a Champions League winners’ medal which just shows how good Eidur had been at the top level for a long time. The former Barcelona man is still not finished and is now on loan to Fulham where he will be a very useful signing for sure.

However, things have changed now! A 21-year old Icelandic international has been making some really good headlines in Germany recently. Gylfi Sigurdsson is still very young but has been touted as the next Iceland footballing legend. As far as football is
concerned, his life is like a ‘from rags to riches’ story and is definitely going to go a long way as he is still only 21.

Gylfi started his career at FH Hafnarfjörður and then joined Breiðablik. At the age of 16, he left Iceland for England where he sought an academy scholarship and was very soon signed by Reading. For a few months, the 16-year old hopeful was all alone but
after seeing his determination to play football in England, his parents moved to England and for the next three years, the ambitious Icelander kept playing for the Reading youth and reserve teams hoping to one day become a renowned name in the footballing
circles.

His hard-work and rapid progress paid dividends and he was awarded a professional contract at Reading in 2007. He spent the first 2 seasons of his contract on loan at Shrewsbury and then at Crewe. But it was just the start of an epic story for the youngster
who himself admits that he made a lot of sacrifices and choices for becoming a footballer.

In the 2009/10 Campaign at the Championship, Gylfi got to know how it felt to be a football player. His first reason was simply breathtaking for him and his fans. In 48 appearances for the club, he scored 23 goals and even had 9 assists to his name. the
third round of F.A Cup was the biggest moment in the youngsters career that season when Reading faced the mighty Liverpool.  Trailing by one goal, Gylfi scored from a penalty kick in the dying moments and then the Championship side went on to win 2-1. This
game also shows us that the lad has this magnificent trait of not losing his head or his nerves when it comes to crunch situations. In his first full season for Reading, Gylfi became Reading’s Player of the Season and left the Championship side on a high and
still a fan favorite.

Bundesliga side Hoffenheim splashed 6.5 million pounds for the highly-rated youngster after being impressed by his Reading-exploits. Since his arrival last summer, Gylfi has proven to be a great player in the making and has even proved critics wrong who
thought that his price tag was over-priced.

He made his debut on September as a substitute-as a chance to have him understand the pace of German football. In his second match (again as a substitute), the youngster showed that he can easily adapt to any style. In that game he scored on a free-kick
and since then, has been converting free-kicks for fun.

With the passage of time, his brilliant midfield play has made him a great box-to-box player and he is now equally good on both flanks. Despite being 6’1, the youngster is blessed with pace and his blistering runs have been excellent. So far this season,
Gylfi has scored 7 goals and has 2 assists to his name in just 15 appearances for his new club. Time will tell how good the youngster really is but at the age of just 21, he is a player who everyone should watch out for. Last year, a volcanic eruption took
place from Iceland and covered almost all of Europe- perhaps it was just transporting Gylfi to Hoffenheim!