Today, after what seems like a lifetime (231 days in reality) the FAI have named Stephen Kenny’s successor. But exactly who is Heimir Hallgrimsson? Born on 10th June 1967, Hallgrimsson is 57 years old. As a qualified dentist Hallgrimsson is the new permanent Head Coach of Ireland and is not just “filling in”.
It may seem like a strange career – combining dentistry and football management, but Hallgrimsson certainly sees some similarities: “Working as a dentist has helped me a lot as you’re always working one-on-one.” He added: “The reality of a football coach, you never know when you are out of a job so it’s good to have another profession to jump into.”
His entire playing career (1992-2007) was spent in Iceland playing for the clubs ÍBV (from his local town Vestmannaeyjar), Höttur, Smástund and KFS.
In 1993 while playing with the men’s senior team of Höttur, he coached their women’s team, helping the team come first in the women’s league second tier to achieve promotion.
Alongside working as a dentist in Vestmannaeyjar, he coached ÍBV’s women’s team guiding them to two 2nd-place finishes in the league and two cup finals, winning the second one in 2004.
He served as Assistant Coach of the ÍBV men’s team in 2002 (with a short spell as a Caretaker Manager) before taking the reins as Head Coach in 2005. During this spell he achieved a promotion, then a 10th place finish, followed by two 3rd place finishes in the Icelandic top league.
In October 2011 the Icelandic Football Association appointed Hallgrimsson as Assistant Coach of the Iceland Men’s Senior team (alongside Lars Lagerbäck as Head Coach). Iceland reached the play-offs of qualification for the 2014 World Cup, but lost against Croatia.
In 2014 Lagerbäck and Hallgrimsson signed new contracts, this time as joint coaches. Lagerbäck and Hallgrimsson steered Iceland to their first major tournament – Euro 2016. At Euro 2016 after finishing second in a group which contained Portugal, Hungary and Austria, they famously defeated England 2-1 in the second round before being eliminated by France in the quarter finals.
Hallgrimsson became the sole Head Coach of Iceland following Euro 2016 (with Lagerbäck leaving to become Manager of Norway). In 2018 he was at the helm when they achieved Iceland’s highest ever FIFA World Ranking – 18th.
Hallgrimsson qualified Iceland for their first ever World Cup, in 2018, impressively topping a qualifying group which also contained Croatia, Ukraine, Turkey, Finland and Kosovo. However, he resigned after the team failed to progress beyond the group stage at World Cup 2018, in which they were pitted against Croatia, Argentina and Nigeria.
Speaking on reflection after the World Cup, he said: “For me personally, to lead my country to the World Cup for the first time was something special. We played quite well, but it would have been nice to qualify from the group stage. We should have done it. We drew against Argentina and played a really good game against Croatia [in a 2-1 defeat]. We missed a lot of good chances and winning that game would have given us the possibility of going through. At the tournament, we only played 45 minutes not up to our standards – we lost against Nigeria and didn’t have a good second half. On the whole, the players produced very good performances and I was really proud of them afterwards, even though we wanted to go further. But just to be a part of the World Cup for the first time in Iceland’s history was huge.”
On 10th December 2018 he was hired as Head Coach for Qatari club Al-Arabi, a position he held until the summer of 2021. In September 2022 the Jamaican Football Federation announced Hallgrimsson as the new coach of the Jamaican national team, however he departed after a poor performance by Jamaica at the 2024 Copa America (losing all three group games against Venezuela, Ecuador and Mexico).
Hallgrimsson is a coach that will fully immerse himself in the job, Something that will be welcomed by Ireland fans. Whilst in charge of Jamaica he said: “I spend most of my time in Jamaica. Ever since I got the job, I thought it was very important to learn about the people and the culture”.
His first match in charge of Ireland will be the opening game of their 2024 Nations League campaign on 7th September, when they face England at the Aviva Stadium.
At his unveiling, he said: “It is an honour to be appointed today. Ireland is rightly a proud footballing nation which has consistently produced talented players and enjoyed many memorable moments at major international tournaments. We have a young and exciting team that has genuine potential. I am looking forward to working closely with the players to help coach and guide them towards improved performances and results ensuring we qualify and compete at major tournaments on a regular basis.”
Let’s get behind the new boss and give him our full support!