A new beginning for Iceland‘s silver generation

The coming EHF EURO 2014 qualifiers against Belarus and Romania mark the end of an era for the Icelandic national team, and at the same time, the beginning of a new one.

This is the first major championships in almost 20 years for the Icelandic team without their talisman and spiritual leader, legend and world star Ólafur Stefánsson.

After the defeat against Hungary in the quarter-finals of the Olympics this summer, he decided to call it quits and has retired from international handball, 39 years old.

He leaves a huge void which will be very hard for the team to fill, as he has for the last 10 years or so been its leader, both on and off the court.

And Stefánsson‘s absence isn‘t the only major change. After four and a half successful years under Guðmundur Guðmundsson, Iceland have a new national coach, Aron Kristjánsson.

Even though he plans to mould the team in his fashion, the changes will be gradual. In his first team, chosen for the EC qualifiers against Belarus and Romania there are 12 of 15 players from Iceland‘s team which reached the last 8 at the London Olympics.

No revolution exactly, but then Kristjánsson says that Guðmundsson left him a team in good shape.

„It‘s a group of very experienced players who have won medals at the highest level, an Olympic silver in Beijing and a bronze at the EURO in Austria (in 2010). The team is very well coordinated, but the only thing missing is more players with experience to cover when we lose somebody due to injury or retirement like Stefánsson."

And even though Kristjánsson admits that life will be different without Stefánsson, he feels adequately covered. 

„Of course, Óli is a legend, one of the world‘s best players of his generation. But also the mental side, he has been a great source of inspiration and motivation for the team.

"So there won‘t be one player taking his role, the whole team will have to step up. We have very good players for his position as a right back, Alexander Petersson, Ásgeir Örn Hallgrímsson og Rúnar Kárason, and they will play bigger roles.

"But we also have to look to other positions as most of our plays involved Óli and we‘ll have to tweak them a bit in his absence.

But with or without Stefánsson and with a new coach, the goal is always the same – victory and to secure a place in the next EHF EURO.

„We know that Belarus have progressed a lot in tha last two years and in Rutenka they have one of the best players in the world. And we also know that Romenia is always a difficult place to visit," Kristjánsson says.

"But we are ranked highest in our group and our goal is to win every game.“