Birkir Már Sævarsson

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Birkir Már Sævarsson
Birkir Már Sævarsson (2015) .jpg
Birkir Már Sævarsson (May 2015)
Personnel
birthday November 11, 1984
place of birth Reykjavík ,  Iceland
size 187 cm
position Defense / midfield
Juniors
Years station
2002 Valur Reykjavík
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
2003-2008 Valur Reykjavík 66 0(2)
2008-2014 Brann Bergen 168 (15)
2015-2017 Hammarby IF 84 0(3)
2018– Valur Reykjavík 40 0(4)
National team
Years selection Games (goals) 2
2006 Iceland U-21 3 0(0)
2007– Iceland 92 0(1)
1 Only league games are given.
Status: end of season 2019

2 As of January 19, 2020

Birkir Már Sævarsson (born November 11, 1984 in Reykjavík ) is an Icelandic national football player . Birkir can play in all defense positions as well as in left midfield. He has been playing for the Icelandic national football team since 2007 . At club level he played in Iceland for Valur Reykjavík , with whom he became champion and cup winner, and without any notable success for Brann Bergen in Norway. From 2015 to 2017 he played in Fotbollsallsvenskan for Hammarby IF before returning to Valur Reykjavik for the 2018 season.

Career

society

Birkir started in 2002 in the U-23 team of Valur Reykjavík and played from the 2003 season at the age of 18 for the first team in the first division , but rose at the end of the season with Valur. In 2004, however, the immediate resurgence and he was used in eleven of 18 league games. In 2005 he was in the first division, which Valur finished as runner-up, only on the last match day and in the cup in the sixteenth and eighth finals. Valur then also reached the cup final and was a 1: 0 against Fram Reykjavik for the first time after 13 years again Cup winner . At the beginning of the 2006 season he won the Supercup with Valur , making them the sole Supercup record winner. He has now been used in all 18 league games. Valur deteriorated by one place and was eliminated in the cup quarter-finals. In the 2006/07 UEFA Cup they failed in the first round at Brøndby IF . In 2007 he only missed one league game and became champions for the first time with Valur. For the club it was the first championship in 20 years and the last one to date. In the cup, however, they failed again in the quarter-finals. With Valur he took part in the UEFA Intertoto Cup 2007 , but failed there in the first round at the Irish representative Cork City . They started the 2008 season with victory in the Supercup. He then only made the first eleven league games and then moved to the Norwegian club Brann Bergen , which had become champions in 2007 .

His first games for Brann were on August 13 and 27, 2008 in the third qualifying round of the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League against Olympique Marseille . Since both games were lost, they started as losers in the first round of the 2008/09 UEFA Cup . There he only made the second leg against Deportivo La Coruña on October 2, 2008. Both had won their home game 2-0 after 90 minutes and since extra time in La Coruña was goalless, there was a penalty shoot-out in which he was not involved. Since three of his teammates missed, while only one failed to make it with the Spaniards, Bran was eliminated. The league then concluded eighth. In the following years, the club moved between 4th and 13th place, in 2014 they had to go into relegation in 14th place and lost it to the third in the 2nd division .

Birkir then moved in 2015 to the Swedish club Hammarby IF , which had been promoted to the Swedish first division . They finished the first season in eleventh place.

For the 2018 season he returned to Valur Reykjavík and became Icelandic champion again with Valur.

National team

Birkir on May 30, 2014

In 2006 he played three games for the U-21 team in qualifying for the U-21 European Football Championship in 2007 , but failed in Italy .

On June 2, 2007, Birkir celebrated his debut for the national team in the European Championship qualifier against Liechtenstein when he came on in the 70th minute. Four days later he was in the starting XI against Sweden for the first time, but was replaced after 65 minutes. After that, he had to wait until February 2008 for his next assignment and thus missed six international matches. Even after that, there were always shorter or longer breaks, partly due to injuries and it has been used a maximum of nine times in a row.

In qualifying for the 2014 World Cup , the Icelanders were clearly underdogs, as they were the worst-placed team in their group in the FIFA world rankings . But they were able to leave the former World Cup participants Norway and Slovenia behind and only had to give way to the strengthened Swiss. As second in the group, they still had the chance to qualify via the play-offs against Croatia . After a goalless draw in the home game, for which Birkir was suspended after the second yellow card in the last group game, he lost 2-0 in Croatia. Overall, he was used in nine of twelve qualifying games.

The qualification for the EM 2016 went even better . Again they were considered outsiders, even if they were now only the second worst team. Nevertheless, they were able to defeat the World Cup third and high favorites Netherlands for the first time on October 13, 2014 and even win the second leg in Amsterdam after this home win. In the end they had to give the Czechs first place, but on the third last day of the match they had already qualified for the European Championship finals for the first time. He was used in eight qualifying games and was only absent in the first two games.

On May 12, 2016 he was appointed to the squad for the EM 2016 by coach Lars Lagerbäck . In the squad he was the defender with the most international matches. In a test match shortly before the European Championship against Liechtenstein , he scored his only international goal to date. In all five games in the tournament he was part of the starting line-up and played over 90 minutes. In the second group game against Hungary he underwent an own goal in the 87th minute in a defensive attempt , which meant that the Icelanders, which had long been 1-0, had to accept the equalizer. As a newcomer to the European Championship, they made it to the quarter-finals, where they lost to hosts France.

At the 2018 World Cup, he was the only player in the Icelandic squad to play in Iceland. It was used in the three group games against Argentina , Nigeria and Croatia , after which Iceland was eliminated as the bottom group. In the 2018/19 UEFA Nations League , he appeared in two of the four games that were all lost. In qualifying for the 2020 European Football Championship , he was only used in the first two games. After that, he was only used again in two friendly matches in January 2020, when mainly players playing in Iceland were used, as the Icelandic league had ended the season.

successes

Web links

Commons : Birkir Sævarsson  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deportivo La Coruña SK Brann 2: 0 nV 3: 2 iE
  2. ↑ Iceland - Liechtenstein 1-1
  3. ↑ ksi.is: "Byrjunarliðið Gegn Svíum í kvöld"
  4. ↑ ksi.is: "A karla - Hópurinn fyrir umspilsleikina Gegn Króatíu"
  5. ↑ "A karla - Lokahópur for EM 2016"
  6. ↑ Iceland vs. Hungary 1 - 1
Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .
personal data
SURNAME Birkir Már Sævarsson
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Birkir Saevarsson (FIFA spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION icelandic soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Reykjavík , Iceland