Country: Iceland

 

Coach: Bjarni Fritzson

 

Key Players: Teitur Orn Einarsson (Right Back), Gisli Thorgei Kristjansson (Centre Back)

 

Qualification for Georgia 2017: 2016 Men’s U18 European Championship — 7th place

 

History in Tournament: 2005-2007: DNQ, 2009: 2nd, 2011-2013: DNQ, 2015: 3rd

 

Overview:

 

Out of six editions, Iceland have only participated twice at the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship. But the extraordinary fact is that those two times they climbed the podium — they were silver medallists in 2009 and claimed bronze in 2015.

 

In spite of their most recent result at Russia 2015, the Icelanders keep their feet on the ground. “We will focus on each game one at a time and try not to think too far ahead,” expresses head coach Bjarni Fritzson – a former Iceland player. “Our aim is to compete and win the next game and of course to enjoy the moment and the experience”.

 

Iceland qualified for Georgia 2017 as the 7th-ranked team at the 2016 Men’s U18 European Championship. In Group C they finished 2nd after conceding to Croatia and beating Sweden and Czech Republic. Later they lost their three main round games versus Croatia, Germany and Serbia. In the 5-8 placement match they were beaten by Denmark 33:28 – although they were leading 16:13 at half-time.

 

Centre back Gisli Thorgei Kristjansson was Iceland’s top scorer at the last U18 EURO with 53 goals, followed by Teitur Orn Einarsson with 40. Although they can be marked as two of the most valuable players for the squad, Fritzson believes that the most important quality of his team is that “we have a great team atmosphere and everybody works as one, as all Icelandic national teams.”

 

Iceland will be part of Group B, in which they will compete against two European teams – Germany and hosts Georgia – a Pan American nation like Chile, Japan from Asia and a representative from Africa as Algeria. “It’s going to be really exciting and a tough group,” points out coach Bjarni Fritzson.

 

Group B: Germany, Iceland, Georgia, Chile, Japan and Algeria.

 

Games at Georgia 2017:

All times local

 

Tuesday 8 August: ISL-JPN (14:00)

Wednesday 9 August: CHI-ISL (16:00) 

Friday 11 August: ISL-GEO (18:00)               

Saturday 12 August: ISL-ALG (16:00)

Monday 14 August: GER-ISL (12:00)

 

You can follow the Iceland team campaign on their official channels: website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

 

IHF Website & Social Media:

For a complete coverage of the 2017 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship stay tuned to our website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube channels.