The Swedish Handball Association announced yesterday that it had hired an Icelander as the coach of its men’s national handball team, RÚV reports. Kristján Andrésson is a 36-year-old who has lived in Sweden for years. He played with Guif Eskilstuna for a long time before taking over as coach in 2007.
Kristján played 13 national games with Icelandic men’s national handball team and was part of the team at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.
He takes over the Swedish team from Staffan Olsson and Ola Lindgren who left their positions after the Olympics in Rio last month. The two had coached the team since 2008.
Kristján is the fifth Icelander to coach national teams abroad. Guðmundur Guðmundsson coaches the Danish men’s national handball team, which won gold at the Olympics in Rio, causing him to be dubbed GULDmundur in Denmark, meaning GOLDmundur.
Dagur Sigurðsson coaches the German men’s national handball team. Under his coaching, they became European champions in January this year, making Dagur a national hero in Germany, and claimed the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics.
Patrekur Jóhannesson coaches the Austrian men’s national handball team. He happens to be Icelandic President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson’s brother.
Finally, Þórir Hergeirsson coaches the Norwegian women’s national handball team, which boasts of having held all three international titles twice: the World Championship title, the European Championship title and the Olympic Championship title.
