BIOGRAPHY
Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson began his handball career as a youngster, playing as a junior for Grotta HK’s youth and senior teams in Iceland before his first senior club in Akureyri. He moved abroad in 2001 to join VfL Gummersbach, and would play outside Iceland for the rest of his career.
Sigurdsson’s first EHF Champions League experience came during his first stint at Rhein-Neckar Löwen (RNL), with the club reaching the semi-finals in 2009 and the EHF FINAL4 in 2011. He made it to Cologne again the following year with AG København, and in 2013 and 2014 with THW Kiel, but was unable to lift the Champions League trophy.
Sigurdsson finally became a Champions League winner in 2015 with Barça, and spent two years in Barcelona before rejoining RNL. He finished his career in Paris in 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic ending his playing days a little earlier than planned.
During his career Sigurdsson was also a leading light for the Icelandic national team, and key to their 2008 Olympic silver medal and bronze at the EHF EURO 2010. He played 365 matches for his country, scoring a record 1,879 goals. Until the Women’s EHF EURO 2022, Sigurdsson was the all-time top scorer in European championships with 288 goals, but Romania’s Cristina Neagu has surpassed his record (303 goals).
Since retirement, Sigurdsson has taken up coaching. He took over as head coach for Gummersbach - his first foreign club as a player - in 2020, and steered them to promotion to the top tier of the Bundesliga in 2021/22. In 2022/23, Sigurdsson was named Coach of the Year for the Bundesliga.
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