17 year old HK Kopavogur striker, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, is expected to join English Premier League giants Arsenal on a 4 year deal next month and thus rejecting similar offers from Spanish superpowers Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Sigthorsson’s potential has been there for all to see in Icelandic football for quite some time now but it wasn’t until during the christmas period four years ago when Arsenal came knocking at his door at Icelandic club Vikingur Reykjavik and asked to take a look at him, people began to take notice.
The blond haired boy didn’t take long to impress the Arsenal coaching staff and managed to score one goal and create two in a win over Chelsea for the U-18’s.
Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, had seen enough and asked Sigthorsson to come over on a trial the summer after, which Sigthorsson did and impressed again. He rejected Arsenal couple of time due to schooling but is ready to take the next step.
Sigthorsson’s future looks bright and his coach at HK Kopavogur, Zeljko Sankovic, who has coached the likes of Robert Prosinecki and Davor Suker is in no doubt what the talented youngster can achieve. “Im 100% certain he will become a bigger player than Eidur Gudjohnsen. They are also not similar players. Kolbeinn is one of the best prospects in European football and he has similar attributes to Thierry Henry.” That’s quite a compliment coming from such a respected coach, also given the fact that Henry is Sigthorsson’s idol.
The date is March 24th 2007 in Caldas de Rainha in Portugal and Iceland er set to play the reigning U17 European champions Russia for a place in the Finals. At the beginning of the match Iceland are tied with Portugal on two points in the qualifying group. Russia are top with four points. Iceland drew 2-2 against Northern Ireland where Sigthorsson scored a brace and drew 0-0 against Portugal before this match and Iceland pin their hopes on their star striker Kolbeinn Sigthorsson. 40 minutes later, spectators are in awe by the Icelandic performance and especially the performance from Sigthorsson. Iceland lead 5-0 at half time and Sigthorsson has scored four of those goals. Incredible. A stunning come back from Russia in the 2nd half was not enough and Iceland won the match 6-5 and qualified to the finals. After the match the Russian coach said one man had destroyed their dream to defend the title, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson. Describing him as a beast in the penalty box and a ballet dancer with the ball at his feets.
Iceland where poor in the Finals, it has to be said but Sigthorsson was the ray of light. Despite being injured, he managed to play one match and score one goal.
He then went on a trial at dutch club Ajax and flew home with a contract offer in his pocket but his mind was somewhere else, at Arsenal, where his future for the next few years is almost certain to be.
