MBE David James, the England international goalkeeper and one of the all-time Premier League (PL) appearance record holders with 536 games, signed to Icelandic football club ÍBV of Vestmanneyjar (the Westman Islands) on Tuesday.
Vestmannaeyjar, the new home of David James. Photo: Páll Stefánsson/Iceland Review.
James was capped 53 times by England between 1997 and 2010 and holds the PL record for most clean sheets with 173.
He started his career with Watford in 1988 and played with Liverpool, Aston Villa, West Ham, Manchester City and Portsmouth in the PL.
With Portsmouth he won the FA Cup in 2008 along with his friend and Vestmannaeyjar local Hermann Hreiðarsson, now the new ÍBV manager.
James’ height, 1.94 m (6 ft 4), will perhaps help ÍBV reach new heights? The club was in the number 3 spot in the Icelandic league last year and has won the Icelandic Championship three times, in 1979, 1997 and 1998, and the Cup four times, in 1968, 1972, 1981 and 1998.
The home ground, Hásteinsvöllur, has a capacity of 1,500. The population of Vestmannaeyjar, the 12th largest town in Iceland, is 4,200, ten times less than Welwyn Garden City, in Hertfordshire, where James was born on August 1, 1970.
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