Bjarni Eggerts Guðjónsson (born 26 February 1979) is an Icelandic former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, who was last manager of KR. He has played in Belgium, England and Germany and has two brothers who have also played professional football, Þórður and Jóhannes. All three played together at

Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...

. He is also the son of former footballer and now manager Guðjón Þórðarson.

Club career

Bjarni was born in

Akranes Akranes () is a port town and municipality on the west coast of Iceland, around north of the capital Reykjavík. The area where Akranes is located was settled in the 9th century; however, it did not receive a municipal charter until 1942. His ...

. He began his career at his hometown club ÍA, before moving to English club Newcastle United in 1997 for £500,000. He failed to break into the first team at the club and left a year later for Belgian club

before returning to England in 2000 with Stoke City in a £250,000 signing joining up with his father Guðjón Þórðarson who was manager. He became a regular in the first team and made 53 appearances in the 2000–01 season however he was transfer listed at the end of the season as his father felt Bjarni was struggling to deal with being the son of the manager. No transfer away from the club was forthcoming and Bjarni stayed for the 2001–02 season and this time played 54 matches as Stoke gained promotion via the play-offs. Despite gaining promotion his father was sacked by the board. Bjarni stayed at Stoke and helped the club to avoid relegation before he joined his brother

Þórður Guðjónsson Þórður "Thordur" Gudjonsson (born 14 October 1973) is an Icelandic former professional footballer who played as a midfielder or striker. Club career Þórður was born in Akranes started his career with local teams KA Akureyri and ÍA A ...

at VfL Bochum on a free transfer. He struggled to cement a place in the first team at Bochum and was loaned out to Coventry City in 2004 where he excelled under the management of Eric Black. Coventry signed him on a free later that year however he struggled for game time under new manager Peter Reid and eventually fell out of favour. He was signed on a free by Plymouth Argyle who he stayed with for two years and was a popular character, scoring once against Everton in the FA Cup, before joining ÍA again in 2006. In his second spell at ÍA he stayed for two years, until he was sold to KR in 2008.

International career

Bjarni made his debut for

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

as a substitute for Helgi Sigurðsson in a friendly match against

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

in April 1997 and has been capped 19 more times since, scoring once against

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

in a World Cup qualifier in 1997, as well as captaining his side in a 2008 fixture.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

ÍA *

Úrvalsdeild The Besta deild karla () is a professional association football league in Iceland and the highest level of the Icelandic football league system. The competition was founded in 1912 as the Icelandic Championship. Because of the harsh winters in I ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

* Icelandic Cup: 1996 * Icelandic League Cup:

Genk *

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

: 1998–99 Stoke City *

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

: 1999–2000 *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier ...

play-offs:

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gudjonsson, Bjarni 1979 births Living people Bjarni Gudjonsson Bjarni Gudjonsson Men's association football midfielders Bjarni Gudjonsson Bjarni Gudjonsson Bjarni Gudjonsson Newcastle United F.C. players K.R.C. Genk players Stoke City F.C. players VfL Bochum players Coventry City F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Bundesliga players Oberliga (football) players English Football League players Bjarni Gudjonsson Bjarni Gudjonsson Bjarni Gudjonsson Bjarni Gudjonsson Bjarni Gudjonsson Expatriate men's footballers in England Bjarni Gudjonsson Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Bjarni Gudjonsson Expatriate men's footballers in Germany