₦airaland Forum

MetalJigsaw:
This man must be drunk

SerVik:
There be ice dragons here. By aron gunnarsson.


I hope our World Cup opponents aren’t reading this, because I’m gonna tell you exactly what has made our tiny country so successful.

But first, I need to explain a little bit about Iceland. Because I’ve noticed that now, whenever I meet people, they’ll say, “Oh, you’re from Iceland? That’s so cool. Northern Lights! Yeah, man!”

After the Euros put our country in the spotlight, it seemed like everybody started going to Reykjavik on vacation.

But I’m not from the vacation part of Iceland.

I’m from the north of Iceland.

If you try to find my town on old maps, it just says: There Be Ice Dragons Here.

My hometown is a place called Akureyri, with about 18,000 people. There wasn’t really much else to do there except play sports, so I began playing football. Of course, I dreamed of becoming a pro. But there were two problems.

First, I could only play in the summer. You see, in the winter, the pitches were covered with … come on, everybody say it together! You guessed it: ice and snow. And I’m not talking about the kind of winters you have in England, where a few centimeters of snow cause panic. I’m talking about proper winters. Several meters of snow. Minus 10 °. Four or five hours of sunlight a day.

Have you seen Game of Thrones? Well, then you get the idea.

So in winter, I played handball instead. But that didn’t solve my second football problem. You see, when the snow finally melted, I didn’t play on grass. That kind of luxury was reserved only for the senior players.

So I had to play on gravel.

Seriously.

Safe to say, it wasn’t ideal. One day I came home with this horrific gash on my leg, and my mother was shocked. Of course, all I had done was to go into a sliding tackle, but you’d think I had been fighting a bear!

The team I started playing for was called Thór, named after the god of thunder. (I’m not making this up — you can ask my mother.) And I wanted to be a footballer so badly. I was doing these sprints, I was hitting the gym … basically, I was working like a madman. But I also knew the odds were stacked against me. I kept asking myself questions, and I didn’t like the answers.

Aron, how many professional footballers have come from Akureyri?

Not many.

And how good can you possibly get by playing only in summer on a gravel pitch?

Probably not very good.

But I chose to ignore the facts. And then came the game-changer. You see, years ago, the Icelandic Football Association invested heavily in these indoor halls with artificial grass. Suddenly every kid in Iceland could play football all year.

Do you realize how big a deal that was for us? All year!

Of course, I immediately moved into my local hall. I made it my living room. They often had to kick me out at night. But there was still this mental block. What I mean by that is, nobody really believed you could win anything as a footballer from Iceland. In fact, this one time, a player on our national team told me a story about how he told his club coach that he dreamed of playing in the Euros.

“That’s a nice thought,” the coach said. “It’s just a shame you’re from Iceland.”

Pretty depressing, right?

Personally I didn’t let that bother me, but I did know I had to leave Iceland to evolve as a player. So when I got the chance to join AZ Alkmaar, in Holland, I took it. I was 17 years old. And man, it was tough. The football was on another level. In my first training session, I got nutmegged four times. I was so embarrassed that I considered jumping on the first flight back to Iceland.

https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/d07bf7f8-180504sr_arongunnarsson_p1453_0135.jpg?width=1000

But the hardest part was leaving my family. I spent the first two months holed up in a hotel, calling my mother, crying, saying I didn’t really want to do this. Thankfully, my family encouraged me to keep going, and deep down I was still hell-bent on making it.

I guess all my tears paid off, because 18 months later I got the call for the Iceland senior squad. They were playing a friendly against Belarus in Malta, and I had to get on a flight immediately in order to make it in time. Only I didn’t have a car. During my first year in Holland, I had been riding a bicycle everywhere because I couldn’t afford anything else.

So you know what my mother did? She bought me a scooter.

A red scooter. It looked more like a motorcycle really, which I thought was kind of badass. I actually grew quite attached to it. So when they called me up to the national team, I strapped on my backpack, put on my bike helmet and drove to the train station, where I got the express train to the airport.

Thanks for that one, mum �

So I go off and live my dream, playing for Iceland, and it’s incredible. I fly back to Holland, and I’m still in the clouds. I’m buzzing. I’m a big time footballer now, right? Well, I walk outside the train station to fetch my scooter from the rack where I had parked it … and what do I see?

In the very spot where my scooter was supposed to be, there’s nothing but a single tire with a chain wrapped around it.

Someone had stolen my damn scooter while I was off playing Belarus.

My mother just laughed about it, but I’m telling you, I was genuinely upset! That robbery really brought me down to earth quickly.

A few years later, I was part of the group that qualified for the 2011 under-21 Euros in Denmark. That was a big deal, because Iceland had never done that. By the time we entered qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, many of us guys from the under-21 team had become part of the senior side.

Of course, even with all that young talent, we were never supposed to make the World Cup.

People always used to say, “Iceland? Bah, there’s not many world-class players in Iceland.”

But, actually, with 330,000 people living there … we don’t have many players full-stop.

So we had to be clever about the way we played. And that’s where our former coach, Lars Lagerbäck, came in.

When you look at Lars, he doesn’t appear to be a prolific coach. He’s very understated. But, man, he knows what he’s doing. When he arrived in 2011 he began holding these meetings about how we defended. They were long, and honestly, extremely boring. Just so, so boring. But Lars kept going on about it. Positioning. Corners. Throw-ins … none of the fun stuff. In training, we’d play attack vs. defense, just so that we could work on our defensive shape.

Because of that collective spirit, we made the playoffs, and faced Croatia. And when we got a 0–0 draw at home… honestly, I thought we had a chance. Then in Croatia, when they went 1–0 up but got a man sent off, we just needed one goal. One goal. We were so close…

But we never made it.

Croatia won 2–0.

Afterwards our locker room was like a graveyard. Not just because we hadn’t won, but because we hadn’t played well. But then somebody says, “Well… Let’s just go to the Euros then!”

I still don’t know who said it, but I remember thinking, He’s right. Screw this. Let’s just move on to the next one.

So that’s what we did. We started working even harder. And in that qualifying campaign for Euro 2016, we just got better and better. Our fans were a huge part of it, too. When we played Holland at home in October, I remember we went up 1—0, and the stadium fell quiet for a bit … and then …

BOOM, BOOM, HÚH!

I turn around. What was that? It was like the sound of a thunder strike.

BOOM, BOOM, HÚH!

Shivers run down my spine.

BOOM, BOOM, HÚH!

You see, that was the first time our fans did the famous Viking Clap. We may only play in front of 10,000 people, but when they do that clap … man, it feels like 100,000.

That night, I looked at some of the Holland players, and I thought, Whoa … They must be feeling that.

At the end of qualifying, we needed a point at home against Kazakhstan to become the smallest nation to ever reach the Euros. That match was a struggle. I even managed to get sent off. But when we dug out that 0–0 draw…. We went ballistic. I sprinted out on the pitch with my jacket on. We did the Viking Clap so loudly that the whole of Iceland must have heard it. And when we went to a square in Reykjavik later that night, we saw tens of thousands of people waiting for us.

That’s when you realize that you’ve really made your country proud, you know?

Of course, qualifying was one thing. The tournament itself? Who knows? Many people thought we would be lucky just not to be embarrassed.

It’s funny, because I can recall the exact moment when I realized that we had something special. It was after a training session just before the tournament, when Eidur Gudjohnsen came up to me.

He said, “You know, Aron … I really wouldn’t want to play against us.”

I said, “What do you mean?”

He said, “Well, there’s no space. I wanted to play these passes, and I wanted to create chances … But I just couldn’t.”

And that’s when the penny dropped for me. Because if you didn’t know, Eidur is football royalty. He’s played for Pep Guardiola at Barcelona — he’s played with Ronaldinho and Messi. Basically, if Eidur says you have a great defense, you really do have a great defense.

We started off against Portugal. And everyone was talking about what Cristiano Ronaldo would do to us. “How many will he get? Two goals? A hat-trick?”

So when we ground out a 1–1 draw … well, the Portuguese weren’t happy.

Of course, we celebrated. Then I saw that Ronaldo had criticized us for having a “small-country mentality”.

And I thought, “Hang on, we’ve never been at this stage before. You have done it plenty of times. We’re Iceland. Of course we’re gonna be proud!”

We could only draw against Hungary next, so we needed a point against Austria in the final group game. They needed to win. As usual, we defended well. It was 1–1 on 90 minutes…. They’re putting pressure on us…. We clear a corner, we launch a counter-attack…. And we score!

Arnór Traustason! 94th minute! Iceland goes through to the knockout stage!

Unbelievable….

I guess you may have seen the clip of the commentator on Icelandic TV going berserk when we score. It went viral, and no wonder. I mean, the guy genuinely lost it. He was screaming and crying, losing his voice.

But the thing is, everyone in Iceland was feeling like that. It wasn’t just the players and the fans — it was people back home too. We were all going berserk.

As we celebrated on the pitch, I went looking for the drummer in the Iceland fan group. I knew him, so I gave him a hint … He told everyone to be quiet … and then we did our most famous rendition of the Viking Clap. We had never done it like that before, with both the fans and the players together.

It was just pure, spontaneous joy.

BOOM, BOOM, HÚH!

https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/4e891484-ttwire_ap_494137560080.jpg?width=1440

We were so relaxed ahead of the Round of 16 game against England. We had reached our goal — everything else was a bonus. We actually had extra motivation, because everyone in Iceland loves the Premier League — they show every single game on TV. Literally. So now we had this great chance to beat our heroes. And just in case anyone wasn’t fully up for it, Eidur made a speech.

He said, “Is everyone full? Do we want any more? Are we still hungry?”

You can imagine the roar of the response.

It was the opposite for England, I think. I almost felt sorry for them. They were under so much pressure, and you could definitely tell. They were making simple mistakes, getting the basics wrong…. They knew the trouble they would be in if they lost to Iceland.

Everyone spoke about how bad England were, but watch the game again. Look at how organized we are. We run. We shut down space. We cover for each other. What Eidur had said after that training session was spot on: We really are horrible to play against.

When the game was over, I sprinted toward our fans so quickly that I forgot to shake hands with the England players. So if you guys are reading this … sorry!

And, then … well, I know this may sound weird, because I’m this Icelander with all these tattoos and a beard and all that. But as we celebrated, I wanted to cry. Honestly. When we did the Viking Clap with our fans, shivers ran down my spine.

I must admit that it took us a while to come back down to earth after that tournament. But we managed to do it. You see, at our next team meeting, Heimir Hallgrímsson shook us back to life. He had been the joint first coach with Lars during the Euros, but now that Lars had left for the job in Norway, he was in charge.

His message was simple.

We had never made a World Cup in our nation’s history.

So … Why can’t we do it?

https://cdn.theplayerstribune.com/uploads/f6dab7d9-180504sr_arongunnarsson_p1453_0169.jpg?width=1000

I mean, we could have said, “We’re tiny Iceland. Nobody expects us to qualify. We won’t put any extra pressure on ourselves.”

But there was no way that was happening. That’s just not us.

In fact, at the Euros, we had already sent people to scout our World Cup qualifying opponents. That tells you something about our mindset. We wanted more.

Some of us players are nearing the end now. We’re in our late 20s and early 30s, and we know we’ll have to give way for younger players soon. That’s why it’s so important that we pass on the values that have made us successful. I mean, we could go to Russia and try to play like Barcelona. But what would be the point? We’d just be a bad copy. We’d definitely be a worse team.

That’s not what Iceland is about. It never has been.

In a way, I see our style as a symbol of Iceland. Just look at some of our players — I mean, maybe we’re not the most technical. Maybe we’re not the prettiest to look at. But would you want to fight us? I don’t think so.

We’re united. We’re tough. We fear nothing.

And that’s the lesson I want to pass on to our young players in Russia. I want them to realize that if you work hard, and if you have guys who are willing to stick together, anything is possible in football. Anything. CC: mujtahida


Aron Gunnarsson
ICELAND

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/there-be-ice-dragons-here

aodis:
See ehn, for one with ogu's comment \reply I feel its very very disgusting. Its shows that they really do not care. Yes that's the way I see it. Just like I was listening to sport zone today, if these players loose its business as usual . Honestly I just pray we scale through . if not these sets of eagles are nothing to write hone about. Honestly!

Mujtahida:
Though I understand the ritual significance of that prayer thing, it looks childish abeg. Let them pray in their dressing room. Jesus ma advocated secrecy in prayers. Three times too much.

MetalJigsaw:
Just imagine that silly statement " they have gone through hell"...

Dis others jump automatically into the World cup? nonsense

GentlePEACE:
To qualify to be on the
Matriculation List:
Print your Admission Letter
Online from the e-Facility
Platform
Print your Result Slip Online
from the e-Facility Platform
Verify the two documents with
the admission officer in your
Institution

@thebolded; do one physicall go to the admission officer for verification or how?

TheSuperNerd:
And some folks here wanna make us think they are unserious and only social media clowns because we lost to Croatia??! Nonsense!

This is Leon. The Leon behind the player, Leon Balogun.

They will rise. They fought through hell personally and professionally to get to Russia. They will rise. The Super Eagles will rise. This is an example of the story behind our team's individual key stars. These guys are not jokers. People can ridicule them all they want because of a loss but we that know the team will stand and back them up until that fire manifests.

Go Leon... Rise.

Dannyxy:
singing, dancing, prayers are just our traditions, they are not the reason our players are not meeting up to expectations..

And when fans pray for the players, how is that a bad thing, it's just a form of support..

TheSuperNerd:
Some of you guys really are having fun gathering likes over obvious posts hitting on our boys and any slight hint of their social activity as of they just deliberately went there to fail. It is okay... Now is the season.... Have your fun.

But one thing I know is this: Those guys are not jokers. They showed fire and fight in the WC Qualifiers and will hopefully show so again. They just have to look within coz they have it in them. They have only failed to pull it out of themselves and soar. I hope to see a better SE team come Friday.

Apex02:
Please who can create jamb profile... My school is asking for my username n password... I came in through direct entry 2013....then nothing like that... Contact 08063984918

Zangazanga:
Yes you can. It will look like this if successful.

Goke7:
this is a very old pic, let's stop this joke abeg, doesn't make sense anymore

Martz101:
i agree with you on this, Ogu playing while Omeruo on the bench dont make sense to me and for Moses he must play.

i watch neymar against Austria i keep seeing him take on players even when he should pass and he pass when i thought he will pull another move that's exactly what moses do for us. it makes the team unpridictable.

Barca with messi most time is like and an arsenal team, pass and pass without any penetration or short

safarigirl:
oha you are obviously plaayong oga Komekn out of position. He is one of the top strikers here and you want to field him as a defender?

This is how Rohr successfully kicked out Aina from the team after playing him out of position. Do you think this your act will encourage the foreign based members to come forward for selection?

edi287:
Aina is a regular at Hull and had an above average season. Echiejile wasn't even getting starts at a second division Belgian side. How many opportunities did Aina get if we're being real?? Yes I know people will point to Ebuehi and talk about how he came and played well against Argentina but he was a bit shaky in his first game for us too.
Yes Aina hasn't killed it but neither did Echiejile. If we all agree Idowu is first choice LB at the moment, why not take a younger Aina to gain experience? His versatility might have come in handy.

safarigirl:
the guy matter tire me

Come here dey speak English that it's a travesty that Aina was dropped, mbok, who is Aina that he should not be dropped? Is he Pique? Abi Walker? Or is he Marcelo?

Why is it a travesty? And what is that nonsense talk about other FBs refusing to join Nigeria because of one Aina? Is he the only FB on the team? Is it not Alex Iwobi collecting endorsements up and down? Even more than key members of the English squad sef.....if any FB has sense, won't he see how Alex is being treated? Ekong just got a Tag Heuer endorsement, maybe he was playing in Oshodi before breaking into the Super Eagles.

Me I hate nonsense talk, Super Eagles is not an extension of the Three Lions team, er must not take every England reject to World Cup just because they finally got a Nigerian passport


See as Southgate dey make me insult my guy ....Aina, I'm sorry, you're not an England reject, okay?

CaptainStephen:
Onazi should be shot

komekn:
Dissapointed not that many in the stadium sporting the green. Considering the number of Nigerian in England I expected a lot more at Wembley.

I know it's 15 minutes to kick off and there may be another 10000 fans on thier way, I.e. African time.

komekn:
Dissapointed not that many in the stadium sporting the green. Considering the number of Nigerian in England I expected a lot more at Wembley.

I know it's 15 minutes to kick off and there may be another 10000 fans on thier way, I.e. African time.

Martz101:
Aina was not invited to be jovial, if we need jovial people we know where to find them.

i hope he get ready to prove him self when it matters

Martz101:
Aina was not invited to be jovial, if we need jovial people we know where to find them.

i hope he get ready to prove him self when it matters

forgiveness:
You mean Senator Aluko's son is from Delta state? Bhuuuhahaha!

See as e wan cover him stereotype mentality.

komekn:
Getting into European youth academy football is easier for a Nigerian youth international than an innit boy. You made the proposition that it's much harder for boys coming from Nigeria to get into football than boys here.

The branding of Nigerian youth international will open doors for you in Europe unlike Nigeria origin players coming from local clubs in England.

In reality if Nwakali had been outstanding in the Eredivisie, became the stand out player. It would be possible using exceptional talent proviso to get a work permit for him. He would then be playing for Arsenal or some other top club. But as it stands the possibility of him ever playing for Arsenal is near impossible.

forgiveness:
This is about the 35 man list for the 2018 WORLD CUP. Rohr confirmed there was a 35 man list.


What I deduced from you is, you have a stereotype mentality against names like Ajagun and Aluko else you would have backed up your argument with facts.

realpoacher:
K. Nwakali is not a one match player.

FYI, he has been a constant performer in the Nigerian Jersey, thats why he is seen as a special talent to us. We are used to him because he is closer to us, he grew up here, his early teenage years were all for our underage teams in which he performed excellently well and he has been point blank outstanding among all his peers from homegrown Nigeria.

You are measuring him with European football standards but we are measuring him with our own local standard.

He was molded from a young teen and exported to Europe after excelling here. Right now in Europe, he is not performing because reason being that like all other previous examples of homegrown Nigerian players who will have to re-learn football basics, adapt to new food, weather, culture, and lifestyle. Inorder words he has to start all over again.

The good thing is, he has age on his side as he is currently 19. And he will surely excel at "his" time

Now before you start your lengthy preaching about how at 19 he should be tearing apart all leagues, listen and listen good. Except for Pele, Messi, and Maybe Ronaldo De lima,... No player that ever played on planet earth had an excellent, world class, successful, and illustrious career from 18- 30 years stretch.

At some point in time players struggle, even Messi was MOTM at u17 and u20 but he was relatively unknown at age 20. He sat out on the bench studying from Ronaldinho and Eto at Barcelona and studied under Crespo and co in the Argentine squad to the 2006 world cup.

Honestly you have to cut the boy some slack because the boy deserves every nurture he gets from us because he is our golden boy. His skills and ability are not in doubt because he performs every time he puts on our Jersey. He will mature, and begin to perform at his clubside soon, its just a matter of time.


On a final note,

You should really be ashamed comparing these your foreign born Nigerian origin players with those who are from home here who comes to England after crossing seven sees and seven mountains only to be measured on the same wavelength with those that are born and bred there. Compared to those that learned football right from their childhood in the UK yet they can't seem to succeed within their mates.


These your foreign born are used to the weather, food, culture, lifestyle and football basics yet they are not tearing apart the Epl.. NO!!.. They are in the Championship and League 1 struggling. They are looking for cheap landing by fighting for spots in the SE inorder to boost their failed career. If football was so easy, how come they can't succeed in it after having so many advantages.?

Look at Aina, there was nothing that wasn't said here by you guys when you were marketing him to NFF, look at how ordinary his play is. Your lame defense?... That he is been played at of position. Let me tell you, in Lagos state alone, i can show you 5 right footed players that will perfectly play our left back far better than this shabby performance displayed by Aina.

Go to Calaba, Awka ibom, Delta, or Jos and you will see right-footers who will comfortably put aina on the bench, the only thing stopping them is the big word "Opportunity".

You have been asked severally to provide an answer why a lad who is not in the England squared currently training with the first team but you seem to be evading the question. Was it on merit that he was chosen?.. Is he tearing apart the EPL currently?

Will you say that when Jack Wilshire was England golden boy or he was the best then?... Even at his best then can you say that he was better than this present K. Nwakali? Atleast k. Nwakali proved himself at the u17 cadet worldwide level, can the same be said of Wilshire then? Someone that wenger took straight from Academy and gave him the preferential treatment.

The big question is where is Wilshire today?.....

Bros,.. There is a time for everything. The career life span of most players is 12 years professionally. Within this period, they don't shine all through, some shine early and fizzle out latter. Many others shine in the middle of their career ie Mo sallah. Some others are late bloomers ie Didier Drogba.

Its just a microscopic few that have the luxury of shinning all through their career ie Pele, Messi and Ronaldo.

So why won't you go easy on K. Nwakali? Is he the reason why Ovie, Ebere, Josh Onoma are not being invited?... Is he the reason why they have not switched allegiance?... Don't they have agents?.. If others are paying bribe, don't they have the money to pay bribe too?... ... Oh! I see.. They have been spoon fed all through their life. Everything they wanted came easy, they are in the UK where life is easy, they were bought football boots for by their parents and forced into the field to play ball. They didn't had to play barefooted ever, they didn't have to carry blocks at building site to raise money for boots.

No wonder they are waiting for Buhari to send a contigent to them to switch allegiance and hustle their way into the SE.... SMH!!!.. They go wait tire... They never ready.. They go grow old with white bia bia... Dem never see anything.

Make dem the wait o!... Tell them make they wait well well...

Let them not worry... When we get an angel to rule Nigeria, and all our corruption issues are over then we would send a 40 man delegation plus a red carpet and a host of dancers over to convince them to play for us.

But before then,... Allow us to nurture and give our preferential treatment to our homegrown local breed talent in peace..!




Rubbish