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talkpoliticsFor those of you who haven't been paying much attention to the ongoing UEFA European Cup (there's Copa America Centenário as well, which is now at the Final stage), tiny Iceland has become one of the great sensations on that tournament. My island nation has thrown a bomb by not only taking their first points at a major international football competition, but then also taking their first win, and progressing to the knock-out stage for the first time. And now all eyes are upon Iceland, and lots of people are asking themselves how this is possible.
First and foremost, the Icelanders managed to turn their shortcomings into upsides. We definitely can't boast of the best conditions for training, since the Icelandic climate is among the harshest. But that's exactly the reason that we had to get used to training on all sorts of grounds (including indoors, on hard artificial flooring), and learn to adapt to various circumstances. That may sound like a disadvantage, but on the other hand it tends to allow the players to bring other skills to the fore, which could then give them an advantage, once they go out and play in different clubs around the world (as our pal![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
abomvubuso for example could attest from personal experience).
But the main reason for this transformation remains the qualification of the trainers. You won't see a guy training a bunch of folks without having a license in Iceland. Most trainers have either a UEFA-A or UEFA-B license - even those who train little kids. In comparison, other Nordic countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway usually hire trainers without such qualifications for the under-12 kids. Often it's actually one of the kids' dads who leads the training. And here's the main difference. Because Iceland produces complete footballers at an early age, while others first develop them at an amateur level, and only later begin to shape them up as professionals.
Sure, Iceland is s small nation of 300+ thousand people, so it doesn't have too much material to work with (and neither can it afford to "think big", as some have demanded of it). It had to learn things slowly and gradually, but it was willing to listen, and learn. We took the know-how from various places. Our trainers often spent time around the big clubs in Holland, Italy and Spain, taking notes carefully. But that doesn't mean they've just copy-pasted everything they saw. They only ganked what would work for our conditions. And they did it the smart way.
The Icelandic football federation started this program in 2002, and now, 14 years later, it's finally starting to bear fruit. Furthermore, the federation is trying to instill a sense of national identity into the players, so that they don't get lured into looking for options for playing for other countries, like others have done. There have been many players of Icelandic origin who've opted for representing other countries in previous years, but now the trend has turned.
And we don't do all that by splashing lots of cash like the bigger nations do. Instead, we invest into brains, and we choose to do things humbly, but smartly. Like in most other areas of our society. The Icelandic football league is semi-professional. Most players do get wages for playing, but they still have a main job that's different from football. Many are still studying in the university. Sure, some clubs are starting to get tempted to spend more money lately, which is a risk of commercializing the game like in most of the world. But I don't think our league will become fully professional any time soon. And that's the charm of it. It keeps the game appealing, and preserves the sense of romanticism that has died out in football in most of the rest of the world a long time ago.
So, this sudden success of Iceland's is not such a surprise when you look more closely, like some arrogant pricks like Cristiano Ronaldo have recently implied. And neither will it be incidental, or temporary. It has become evident that if we keep working in the same direction, the better days of Icelandic football are still ahead.
Team Iceland plays England on Monday evening. Whatever happens, we've already won big time. And this is likely only the beginning. ÁFRAM ÍSLAND!
First and foremost, the Icelanders managed to turn their shortcomings into upsides. We definitely can't boast of the best conditions for training, since the Icelandic climate is among the harshest. But that's exactly the reason that we had to get used to training on all sorts of grounds (including indoors, on hard artificial flooring), and learn to adapt to various circumstances. That may sound like a disadvantage, but on the other hand it tends to allow the players to bring other skills to the fore, which could then give them an advantage, once they go out and play in different clubs around the world (as our pal
abomvubuso for example could attest from personal experience).But the main reason for this transformation remains the qualification of the trainers. You won't see a guy training a bunch of folks without having a license in Iceland. Most trainers have either a UEFA-A or UEFA-B license - even those who train little kids. In comparison, other Nordic countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway usually hire trainers without such qualifications for the under-12 kids. Often it's actually one of the kids' dads who leads the training. And here's the main difference. Because Iceland produces complete footballers at an early age, while others first develop them at an amateur level, and only later begin to shape them up as professionals.
Sure, Iceland is s small nation of 300+ thousand people, so it doesn't have too much material to work with (and neither can it afford to "think big", as some have demanded of it). It had to learn things slowly and gradually, but it was willing to listen, and learn. We took the know-how from various places. Our trainers often spent time around the big clubs in Holland, Italy and Spain, taking notes carefully. But that doesn't mean they've just copy-pasted everything they saw. They only ganked what would work for our conditions. And they did it the smart way.
The Icelandic football federation started this program in 2002, and now, 14 years later, it's finally starting to bear fruit. Furthermore, the federation is trying to instill a sense of national identity into the players, so that they don't get lured into looking for options for playing for other countries, like others have done. There have been many players of Icelandic origin who've opted for representing other countries in previous years, but now the trend has turned.
And we don't do all that by splashing lots of cash like the bigger nations do. Instead, we invest into brains, and we choose to do things humbly, but smartly. Like in most other areas of our society. The Icelandic football league is semi-professional. Most players do get wages for playing, but they still have a main job that's different from football. Many are still studying in the university. Sure, some clubs are starting to get tempted to spend more money lately, which is a risk of commercializing the game like in most of the world. But I don't think our league will become fully professional any time soon. And that's the charm of it. It keeps the game appealing, and preserves the sense of romanticism that has died out in football in most of the rest of the world a long time ago.
So, this sudden success of Iceland's is not such a surprise when you look more closely, like some arrogant pricks like Cristiano Ronaldo have recently implied. And neither will it be incidental, or temporary. It has become evident that if we keep working in the same direction, the better days of Icelandic football are still ahead.
Team Iceland plays England on Monday evening. Whatever happens, we've already won big time. And this is likely only the beginning. ÁFRAM ÍSLAND!
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