Elías Rafn Ólafsson (born 11 March 2000) is an Icelandic 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 ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

for

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pr ...

club

Mafra Mafra is a Czech media group that publishes printed and internet media, headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic. It is a subsidiary of Agrofert holding conglomerate owned by trust of Andrej Babiš, the former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. ...

, on loan from

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each y ...

side

FC Midtjylland FC Midtjylland (, "Central Jutland") is a Danish professional football club based in Herning and Ikast in the western part of Jutland. The club is the result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad. Midtjylland competes in the Danish Su ...

Early life

Elías started playing football at the age of five. He also played both handball and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

in his youth and played two games for the Iceland national volleyball team in 2015. He subsequently quit both sports to fully focus on football.

Club career

Elías came through the youth academy of Breiðablik. In July 2018, he was sold to reigning Danish champions

Midtjylland The Central Denmark Region ( da, Region Midtjylland), or more directly translated as the Central Jutland Region and sometimes simply Mid Jutland, is an administrative region of Denmark established on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish muni ...

. In 2019, he was loaned to

Aarhus Fremad Aarhus Fremad (, "Aarhus Forward") is an association football club located in Aarhus N, the northern part of Aarhus, Denmark. The team plays in the Danish 2nd Division, the third tier of the Danish football league system. Aarhus Fremad competed ...

where he appeared in 20 games. In August 2020, he was loaned to

Fredericia Fredericia () is a town located in Fredericia Municipality in the southeastern part of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The city is part of the Triangle Region, which includes the neighbouring cities of Kolding and Vejle. It was founded in ...

. In December 2020, he signed a 5-year contract extension with Midtjylland. In September 2021, he was named the

Player of the Month. On 18 July 2023 it was confirmed, that Ólafsson had joined

club

on a season-long loan deal.

International career

Elías was selected to the Icelandic national team ahead of its friendly games against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

and

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by ...

in January 2020. He was an unused substitute in both games. In October 2020, Elías was diagnosed with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

, following Iceland's U-21 2–0 win over Luxembourg U-21. In March 2021, he was selected to the Icelandic U-21 team ahead of its games in the

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021) was the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (26th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football c ...

. He made his debut for the senior

Iceland national football team The Iceland national football team (in ) represents Iceland in men's international Association football, football. The team is controlled by the Football Association of Iceland, and have been a FIFA member since 1947 and an UEFA member since 19 ...

on 8 October 2021 in a

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

against

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ólafsson, Elías Rafn 2000 births Living people Elías Rafn Ólafsson Men's association football goalkeepers Elías Rafn Ólafsson Elías Rafn Ólafsson Elías Rafn Ólafsson Úrvalsdeild karla (football) players Danish Superliga players Danish 1st Division players Liga Portugal 2 players Breiðablik men's football players FC Midtjylland players Aarhus Fremad players FC Fredericia players C.D. Mafra players Elías Rafn Ólafsson Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Icelandic expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Icelandic expatriate sportspeople in Portugal