Eiður Guðjohnsen
| Eiður Guðjohnsen | ||
 |
||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen | |
| Date of birth | September 15, 1978 | |
| Place of birth | Reykjavík, Iceland | |
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | |
| Playing position | Attacking midfielder / Second striker | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | FC Barcelona | |
| Number | 7 | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1994 1994–1996 1998 1998–2000 2000–2006 2006– |
Valur Reykjavík PSV Eindhoven KR Reykjavík Bolton Wanderers Chelsea FC Barcelona |
17 (7) 13 (3) 6 (0) 55 (18) 185 (54) 53 (10) |
| National team2 | ||
| 1996– | Iceland | 52 (22) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen (born September 15 1978 in Reykjavík), known in English as Eidur Gudjohnsen, is an Icelandic football player who is a current striker with FC Barcelona, having signed for the Spanish club on June 14, 2006. For the six previous years he had been a midfielder/striker with the English Premiership club Chelsea, having made his name with Bolton Wanderers in what is now the Football League Championship. He was the captain of the Iceland national team until manager Ólafur Jóhannesson took over the team. For Barcelona he wears the number 7 shirt and for Iceland number 9. So far in his professional football career, Guðjohnsen has scored 128 goals in all competitions. He is the son of Arnór Guðjohnsen, a former professional footballer.
Contents |
Club career
Early career
On 24 April 1996, Guðjohnsen and his father entered football history when playing in an international friendly for Iceland against Estonia in Tallinn. Arnór started the match, and Guðjohnsen came on in the second half as a substitute for his father.
Both father and son have later expressed bitterness at the fact that they were not allowed to play together in the match. The president of the Icelandic FA, Eggert Magnússon (later of West Ham United) gave the coach, Logi Ólafsson, an express order NOT to play them together because he wanted it to happen on home turf, when Iceland played FYR Macedonia two months later in the first qualification round for the 1998 FIFA World Cup[1].
As it happened they never got another chance because a month after the game in Estonia the younger Guðjohnsen broke his ankle, playing for the Icelandic U18 team against Ireland. He had difficulty coming back because of undiagnosed tendinitis in that ankle.
Guðjohnsen had then been with PSV in the Netherlands for two years and much had been expected of him, as well as another young hopeful, the Brazilian Ronaldo. During Guðjohnsen's injury struggles, PSV finally released him. At the same time Ronaldo went on to Barcelona, the club where Guðjohnsen would end up ten years later.
After a spell in Iceland with KR Reykjavík, Guðjohnsen signed with Bolton Wanderers in 1998.
He has later said that the help he got from former Iceland international, Bolton's defensive stalwart Guðni Bergsson, was incredible.
Bolton Wanderers
Guðjohnsen was unveiled before the Bolton supporters prior to their pre-season friendly with the Scottish club Celtic in a game which was arranged as a testimonial for long serving defender Jimmy Phillips, now a first team coach at Bolton. Guðjohnsen had impressed on the clubs summer tour of Ireland and was given a contract by the then Bolton manager Colin Todd.
Overweight and unfit, it was going to take time for Guðjohnsen to return to the level he needed to be and a brief substitute appearance against Birmingham in September 1998 meant that the Icelander had taken a step further on the road to recovery.
By early 1999, Todd decided to put Guðjohnsen into the senior team full time to help freshen up a Bolton forward line which was decimated by the sale of Arnar Gunnlaugsson to Leicester City and Nathan Blake to Blackburn Rovers.
Guðjohnsen's return to the team saw him score in the 3-3 thriller against struggling Swindon Town at the County Ground and again in the next game against Barnsley at the Reebok Stadium and by the end of the season, he had scored five goals in all competitions.
He helped Bolton to the play off finals against Watford in 1999 and nearly scored at Wembley Stadium but was saved by Hornets veteran goalkeeper Alec Chamberlain. Bolton lost the game 2-0 with the two goals from Nick Wright and Allan Smart.
Starting in all but seven of Bolton's games in the 1999-2000 season, Guðjohnsen partnered a number of players in the Trotters forward line including Dean Holdsworth, Bo Hansen and Bob Taylor. He scored stunning strikes in the FA Cup quarter finals against Charlton Athletic and in the League Cup against Wimbledon which attracted the attention of Derby County amongst others.
He scored 21 goals in the English First Division 1999–2000 season for the Trotters and helping them to the semi-finals of both the FA Cup and League Cup.
New chairman Phil Gartside announced that it would take at least £10 million to prize Guðjohnsen away from Bolton. After helping the Wanderers to the League Cup and FA Cup Semi Finals, it was now his main aim to get the club into the Premiership. He was injured against Ipswich Town in the first leg of the Play Off Semi Finals and missed the controversial second leg which saw twelve Bolton players booked and Mike Whitlow and Robbie Elliott sent off by match official Barry Knight. Speculation increased about his future despite his willingness to stay with Bolton.
Chelsea
In the 2000 close season, during a period of financial troubles at Bolton, he was signed by Chelsea for a fee of £4 million by Gianluca Vialli (who was sacked in September of that year to be succeeded by Claudio Ranieri). He formed a deadly partnership with Dutch striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink during the 2001–02 season, scoring 23 goals himself and helping Hasselbaink to a tally of 27.
Early in 2003, he admitted to a gambling problem, confessing to having lost £400,000 in casinos over a five-month period.[2]
His dribbling and close-control, combined with his deadly finishing, saw him score some remarkable goals during his time at Chelsea. His overhead kick against Leeds in the 2002–03 season for Chelsea is perhaps his finest strike to date. Other notable goals came against Fulham at Stamford Bridge in 2003–04, ranked ten in the 2004–05 Premier League Goals of the Season against Southampton in 2005, and his first professional hat-trick against Blackburn Rovers in October 2004. His touch and vision saw Chelsea manager José Mourinho deploy Guðjohnsen into a deeper midfield role, to which he took readily. He ended up as a utility player: he performed as a central-midfielder; as a right or left winger; as a holding-defensive midfielder or as a striker.
After the arrival of Roman Abramovich as the owner of Chelsea in 2003, and the subsequent influx of expensive and high-profile players including Adrian Mutu, Didier Drogba and Hernán Crespo, his first team place seemed under threat. Despite this, he played regularly throughout the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons, playing a significant role in the Premier League title triumph in 2005. Eidur also scored in Chelsea 4-2 win over FC Barcelona in the 2004-05 European Cup quarter-final.
With Chelsea making several big-name signings in the 2006 close season, notably strikers Andriy Shevchenko and Salomon Kalou and midfielder Michael Ballack, there was growing speculation concerning Guðjohnsen's opportunities for playing time in the 2006-07 Premier League season and his future at Chelsea. Despite being linked with Manchester United and Real Madrid, amongst others, on June 14 2006 it was announced that he had joined Barcelona on a three year contract, with the option of an additional year.
Barcelona
Guðjohnsen was signed by Barcelona to replace Henrik Larsson, who had decided to finish his career at his home town club of Helsingborg in Sweden.[3][4] The fee was claimed to be €12 million with an additional €3 million depending on appearances and performances.
On August 28 2006, Guðjohnsen made his La Liga debut in a match against Celta Vigo. With three minutes remaining in the match, he scored the game-winning goal, leading Barcelona to a 3-2 win. When a Celta defender stumbled over Guðjohnsen's first attempt at a shot, the ball bounced in the air and Guðjohnsen volleyed it past the keeper. Guðjohnsen scored against Chelsea in the Champions League in October 2006, and recorded a brace against Mallorca in mid-November. He scored one of the goals against Werder Bremen, 2-0, to take Barcelona to the final sixteen of the Champions League. Guðjohnsen also gained fame in the United States when he scored an impressive goal against Mexican champions Club Deportivo Guadalajara in front of nearly 100,000 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
On December 6, 2006, Guðjohnsen scored in a 4-0 win against Club América in the FIFA Club World Cup semifinals.
On March 6 2007, Guðjohnsen scored for Barcelona as they fought to overturn their disadvantage in a UEFA Champions League match against Liverpool at Anfield. Despite winning the match, Barcelona were knocked out of the Champions League on away goals.
He ended 2006/07 season with 12 goals in all competitions. Only three of the biggest Barcelona stars, Ronaldinho, Eto`o and Messi, scored more goals. Guðjohnsen was, in fact, the club's top scorer in the Champions League, albeit with only 3 goals.
Although Guðjohnsen played reasonably well in his first season with Barcelona, he did not seem to have fulfilled the expectations of either Frank Rijkaard or the Barcelona fans. During the summer of 2007 he was widely expected to be moving on and was linked with virtually every Premier League team in England.
Barcelona did, however, not take any concrete steps to off-load him. Because of injury, nothing happened anyway and, come autumn, Gudjohnsen took his place on the Barcelona bench. He claimed he was determined to fight his way back into the team but as Barcelona had by now acquired the services of Thierry Henry and given first-team places to young strikers Giovani Dos Santos and Bojan Krkić, he faced a formidable task.
Guðjohnsen made his first appearance of the season on October 23 against Rangers in the Champions League playing as a centre midfielder. He scored his first goal of the 2007/08 season from the penalty spot in the 89th minute in Barcelona's 3-0 Copa del Rey victory over Alcoyano on November 13. On 15th December Gudjohnsen scored his first La Liga goal, of the season in Barça's highest win (3-0) at Mestalla against Valencia CF since the 1997/98 season.
On February 20 2007 he made his 50th appearance in a UEFA Champions League match.
During Barcelona's troubled season Guðjohnsen did manage to become a regular member of Rijkaard's team, playing in altogether 34 games, but only starting 18 times and often replaced. Only on four occasions did he play the full 90 minutes.
Guðjohnsen saved his best performance for the last La Liga match, against relegated Real Murcia, when his fluid midfield play drew rave reviews, although he did not score.
As Barcelona's new coach, Pep Guardiola, was widely thought to plan to off-load Guðjohnsen, together with a host of other players, most people thought this would have been his last game for Barça. Interest from several Premier League clubs duly materialized in the next few weeks, notably from West Ham United and Portsmouth FC.
At the end of July, Guardiola seemed to have changed his opinion and Guðjohnsen played a considerable role in Barcelona's pre-season matches, even scoring two goals against Hibernian. On August 1, Guðjohnsen declared that Guardiola had expressed more faith in him and he was likely to stay in Spain next season [5].
On September 21 Guðjohnsen played his first game of the new season, coming on as a substitute in the 71st minute in Barcelona's thrashing of Sporting Gijon, 6-1. He did not score but played well and was involved in the last two goals, both scored by Lionel Messi. Three days later, on September 24, he again came off the bench in the 70th minute, this time against Real Betis, when he replaced Seydou Keita and managed to score the winning goal in a 3-2 win, 9 minutes later after coming on.
On September 27, Guðjohnsen got his first start of the season, against Espanyol, but did not play well and was replaced by Keita. In spite of his poor performance he did get to play 10 minutues as a substitute in Barça's next game, a Champions League away game against Shakhtar Donetsk on October 1. After he came on Barça staged a remarkable recovery, Messi scoring two goals at the end for Barça to win 2-1. Guðjohnsen was not involved in the goals but did play his part in stabilizing Barça's midfield.
International career
Guðjohnsen joined the Iceland national team in 1996 and since then he has been capped 52 times and scored 22 times he is the highest goalscorer for Iceland. He surpassed Ríkharður Jónsson's Icelandic record of 17 international goals on October 13 2007 by scoring twice in a 2-4 home loss to Latvia. He is the only player to come on as a substitute for his own father.
Personal life
- He has three children: sons called Sveinn and Andri-Lucas, and a baby boy with his wife, Ragnhildur.
Sveinn plays for the Barcelona youth team.
Statistics
All-time club performance
| Club performance | League | Cup | Continental | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Iceland | League | VISA-bikar | Europe | Total | ||||||
| 1995 | Valur | Úrvalsdeild | 17 | 7 | 17 | 7 | ||||
| Netherlands | League | KNVB Cup | Europe | Total | ||||||
| 1995-96 | PSV Eindhoven | Eredivisie | 13 | 3 | 13 | 3 | ||||
| 1996-97 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Iceland | League | VISA-bikar | Europe | Total | ||||||
| 1998 | Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur | Úrvalsdeild | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | ||||
| England | League | FA Cup | Europe | Total | ||||||
| 1998-99 | Bolton Wanderers | First Division | 14 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 5 | ||
| 1999-00 | 41 | 13 | 11 | 8 | 52 | 21 | ||||
| 2000-01 | Chelsea | Premier League | 30 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 37 | 13 |
| 2001-02 | 29 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 43 | 23 | ||
| 2002-03 | 35 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 44 | 10 | ||
| 2003-04 | 25 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 48 | 13 | ||
| 2004-05 | 37 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 59 | 16 | ||
| 2005-06 | 26 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 37 | 3 | ||
| Spain | League | Copa del Rey | Europe | Total | ||||||
| 2006-07 | Barcelona | La Liga | 25 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 41 | 11 |
| 2007-08 | 23 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 37 | 3 | ||
| 2008-09 | 5 | 3 | ||||||||
| Total | Iceland | 23 | 7 | 23 | 7 | |||||
| Netherlands | 13 | 3 | 13 | 3 | ||||||
| England | 237 | 72 | 57 | 24 | 34 | 8 | 338 | 104 | ||
| Spain | 48 | 7 | 13 | 4 | 17 | 3 | 78 | 14 | ||
| Career Total | 321 | 89 | 70 | 28 | 51 | 11 | 442 | 128 | ||
Honours
PSV Eidnhoven
- Dutch Eredivisie: 1997
- Dutch Cup: 1996
- Dutch Super Cup: 1996
Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur
- VISA-bikar cup: 1998
Chelsea FC
- FA Premier League: 2004-05, 2005-06
- FA Cup: 2002 (runner-up)
- Football League Cup: 2005
- FA Community Shield: 2000, 2005
FC Barcelona
- La Liga: 2006-07 (runner-up)
- Spanish Super Cup: 2006
- UEFA Super Cup: 2006 (runner-up)
Iceland
- 2004 FA Summer Tournament: 2004 (3rd Place)
References
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/sports/soccer/05soccer.html?_r=2&ref=sports&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
- ↑ Gudjohnsen in casino woe, BBC Sport, January 12, 2003
- ↑ Guðjohnsen completes Barça move, BBC Sport, June 14, 2006
- ↑ Guðjohnsen set to sign, FC Barcelona, June 14, 2006
- ↑ http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/noticies/futbol/temporada08-09/08/n080801102661.html
- ↑ Soccernet player statistics
- ↑ Footballdatabase player statistics
External links
- FC Barcelona official profile
- FootballDatabase provides Eiður Guðjohnsen's profile and stats
- Guðjohnsen Video Career
- BBC profile
- Gudjohnsen at Official FC Barcelona UK Penya
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