Today sees some of the less glamorous nations (apparently) play their group matches with Austria, Hungary and Iceland on stage along with the more favoured Portugal (only because they have Ronnie, oh and Carvalho (24 years old), Gomes (22), Mario (23) and Sanches (18). They think they have a golden future.
Austria play Hungary in the Hapsburg derby. Both teams were graced with being brought into the 20th century of football by Jimmy Hogan, who carried modern football from England into Europe and he created the Austrian 1930s Wunderteam and was credited with the success of magnificent Magyars. See this previous blog:
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Austria has the fabulous Christian Fuchs of Leicester City in tow and Hungary has Gabor Kiraly-who? well he is the 40 year and 75 days old goalkeeper, once of Crystal Palace. The oldest ever to play in the tournament.
But it is towards the Arctic Circle that I look, to marvel at the development of football on an island that is mainly volcanoes and ice. Still regarded as minnows, with a country population of 325,000, Iceland (FSI) have recently jumped from FIFA rank 131 to 28 and the team faces Portugal this evening.
This improvement is the result of a 20 year project putting football on a pedestal alongside the many "World Strongest Man" titles that Iceland holds. There is not a lot else to do, so locals spend a lot of time body building and are regarded Giants, Their footballers also are gathering a reputation for themsleves and are a surprise addition to the Euro16. Their first major international tournament.
The project has provided places to play football especially during the winter. From 2000 indoor arenas known as Football Houses have been built, the first one at Keflavik near the capital's airport. There are now 7 full size "houses" and 4 half size ones with 100 artificial mini pitches where youngsters can learn and olders can play competitively.
Since the 1990s coaching has been promoted with 180+ UEFA A and nearly 600 UEFA Bs. For every 500 Icelanders there is a qualified coach. In England the ratio is 10,000:1.
I could list the various players who have since gone abroad. 21 out of the 23 in the squad ply their trade across Europe but I would run out of space-too many letters. Gylfi Sigurosson of Swansea might ring a bell and so might Johann Gudmundsson with Charlton and Aron Gunnarsson on Cardiff's books. There are 70 Icelanders earning a living abroad, having developed their talents from the mainly semi-professional Icelandic league. Thanks to Football Houses, Icelandic football is on the way up.
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