Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson

Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson
Guðjón with Gummersbach in 2007
Personal information
Born	(1979-08-08) 8 August 1979 Reykjavík, Iceland
Nationality	Icelandic
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Left wing
Club information
Current club	Rhein-Neckar Löwen
Number	9
Senior clubs
Years	Team
1998–2001	KA Akureyri
2001–2005	TUSEM Essen
2005–2008	VfL Gummersbach
2008–2011	Rhein-Neckar Löwen
2011–2012	AG København
2012–2014	THW Kiel
2014–2016	FC Barcelona
2016–	Rhein-Neckar Löwen
National team
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1999–	Iceland	343	(1798)
Medal record Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Team European Championships 2010 Austria

Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson (born 8 August 1979) is an Icelandic handball player for Rhein-Neckar Löwen and the Icelandic national team.^[1][2][3]

Biography

Guðjón started his handball career at a young age with Grótta on Seltjarnarnes. He also played with KA Akureyri and lost the Icelandic championship final in 2001. KA won the championship final the year after he left. After that, he began his professional career in Germany with Essen. In 2005, Gudjón Valur won the European championship with Essen. Later that year, he joined Gummersbach. At Gummersbach, he was joined by the Icelandic national handball coach Alfreð Gíslason. Gíslason, former sportsman of the year, has led Gummersbach's training since 2006. At the World Championship in handball in Germany in January–February 2007, Gudjón Valur scored the most goals (total of 66). He also played the most minutes of any player in the competition.

On average, Gudjón Valur played 58 and a half minutes out of 60 in each game. However, the Icelandic team, which played well, was unlucky and ended in 8th place. Gudjón Valur is one of the most experienced players on the Icelandic national team. Guðjón Valur was chosen sportsman of the year in 2006.

In 2008 he signed a contract with the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, in the German league. In August 2008 Guðjón Valur played with the Icelandic national team at the Olympics in Beijing, China and won the silver. Gudjon was second top scorer of the Icelandic national team with 43 goals and was named in a seven-man Excellent Olympics. In 2010 Gudjon Valur won his second award for the national team in the tournament when the Icelandic national team won the bronze in the Europe Championship in Austria 2010. Gudjon Valur also played with the Icelandic national team in World Championships in Sweden 2011 and was second top scorer of Iceland with 47 goals.

A year later, at the 2012 European Men's Handball Championship Guðjón played in top form again, being the best Icelandic scorer and the sixth overall of the tournament. The national team, however, slightly underperformed and finished only tenth, still Guðjón Valur made it to the All-Star team as the best left wing of the championship.

On 7 January 2018, Guðjón Valur broke the world record for most goals scored in international men's handball. His goals against Germany took him to a tally of 1798 goals in 337 matches for the Icelandic men's national handball team. The previous record holder was the Hungarian Peter Kovacs, who scored 1797 goals for the Hungarian team.^[4][5]

References