Ríkharður Daðason (born 26 April 1972) 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 ...

who played as a striker for

Fram Reykjavik Fram may refer to: Ships * ''Fram'' (ship), an arctic exploration vessel from Norway * MS ''Fram'', expedition cruise ship owned by Hurtigruten Group Places and geography * Fram, Paraguay, a town in Itapúa, Paraguay * Fram Formation, a sequ ...

, KR,

Kalamata Kalamáta ( el, Καλαμάτα ) is the second most populous city of the Peloponnese peninsula, after Patras, in southern Greece and the largest city of the homonymous administrative region. As the capital and chief port of the Messenia regi ...

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and s ...

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Sto ...

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Viken county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger ...

and

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad. The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 1 ...

Education

Ríkharður graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, where he played on the varsity football team, in 1996 and was inducted into Columbia's athletics hall of fame in 2010.

Club career

Ríkharður started his career in

, and later moved to KR where he became top goalscorer in the Úrvalsdeild in 1996 with 14. His KR career was interrupted by an unsuccessful spell in Greek football with

. In 1998, he moved to Norwegian club

, and after scoring at least 15 goals three seasons in a row he was signed by English club

in the summer of 2000. Stoke were at the time under the control of an Icelandic board and Ríkharður was one of a number fellow countrymen at join up at the

Britannia Stadium The Bet365 Stadium (stylised as ''bet365 Stadium'') is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Britannia Stadium but was re ...

, Stoke had to wait until the Norwegian finished before Ríkharður could join them and he made a great start scoring the winning goal against Barnsley with his first touch. He failed to build on such a good start and scored seven more goals in 2000–01 and became more used by

Guðjón Þórðarson Guðjón Þórðarson (; born 14 September 1955) is an Icelandic footballer manager and former player. He has previously been manager of Iceland, Icelandic clubs ÍA, KA, KR, Keflavík, BÍ/Bolungarvík and Grindavík, English clubs Notts C ...

as a substitute. He scored four goals in 13 matches in 2001–02 and was released by the club at the end of the season. He returned to Norway and played for

and

before ending his career with a return to Fram.

International career

Ríkharður made his debut for

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

in a May 1991 friendly against

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

as a substitute for Grétar Einarsson. He played his last international match in 2003, having been

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

ped 44 times and scoring 14 goals. Ríkharður scored a legendary goal against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, then recent World Cup Champions, on 5 September 1998. The game ended with a 1–1 draw. He was the top goal scorer of the

2000–01 Nordic Football Championship The 2000–01 Nordic Football Championship was the fourteenth and final Nordic Football Championship staged. Six Nordic countries participated, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The tournament was partially played ...

with 4 goals.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Iceland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ríkharður goal.''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dadason, Rikhardur 1972 births Living people Rikhardur Dadason Men's association football forwards Rikhardur Dadason Rikhardur Dadason Rikhardur Dadason Viking FK players Stoke City F.C. players Lillestrøm SK players Fredrikstad FK players Kalamata F.C. players Rikhardur Dadason Rikhardur Dadason Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players English Football League players Super League Greece players Columbia Lions men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Rikhardur Dadason Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Rikhardur Dadason Expatriate men's footballers in England Rikhardur Dadason Rikhardur Dadason