Iceland Looks To Euro 2024 Bolstered By Gudmundsson After Investigation

Albert Gudmundsson has turn into key to Iceland’s ambition within the European Championship after he couldn’t be picked final 12 months throughout a prison investigation.

Iceland performs Ukraine on Tuesday with a spot at Euro 2024 at stake in a qualifying playoff last earned by Gudmundsson’s hat trick in a 4-1 win over Israel final week.

Gudmundsson missed six video games via November in Iceland’s qualifying group as a result of the nationwide soccer federation enforced disciplinary guidelines that excluded him after a lady alleged he sexually assaulted her.

Prosecutors in Iceland just lately closed their investigation, and the 26-year-old Genoa ahead — the fourth technology of his household to play for the nationwide group — was cleared for choice once more.

“We were lacking goals earlier in qualification last year and now we got Albert Gudmundsson back,” Iceland coach Åge Hareide stated after the Israel win final Thursday, “and he showed that he’s a class player.”

The federation stated on Monday it adopted its inner guidelines and allowed Gudmundsson to return.

He denied the allegations and has not spoken concerning the case whereas with the nationwide group.

Iceland had one of many few girl presidents in world soccer, former nationwide group participant Vanda Sigurgeirsdóttir, final 12 months when Gudmundsson’s case emerged. She was elected in 2021 after earlier leaders resigned amid criticism of how they dealt with related allegations that implicated males’s nationwide group gamers.

Those circumstances took the shine off the Nordic island of about 375,000 individuals being a feelgood story in international soccer — a surprising quarterfinalist at Euro 2016 in France, then the smallest nation ever to play at a males’s World Cup, opening in 2018 with a 1-1 draw in opposition to Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

Gudmundsson was too younger for Iceland’s match debut in 2016, then acquired only a few minutes of taking part in time as substitute on the World Cup in Russia.

Now he shapes as the most important problem for Ukraine of their playoff last in impartial Wroclaw, Poland.

Gudmundsson confirmed a full array of scoring expertise in opposition to Israel: A curling free kick to stage the sport earlier than halftime; beating the goalkeeper one on one after dribbling via the center of the protection; a predatory pounce on a free ball after a save.

After 10 objectives in Serie A this season with mid-table Genoa, Gudmundsson’s standout sport has fueled extra hypothesis he’ll quickly transfer to a much bigger membership. Genoa resisted Fiorentina’s affords in January.

Italian champion Inter Milan is reportedly additionally taken with a participant whose great-grandfather, additionally known as Albert Gudmundsson, performed for AC Milan within the Nineteen Forties.

The household is soccer royalty in Iceland and Gudmundsson’s father Gudmundur Benediktsson performed for the nationwide group earlier than changing into a commentator on tv.

Better referred to as “Gummi Ben,” his was the enthusiastic voice on broadcasts from France eight years in the past that made headlines and late evening speak reveals worldwide.

Father and son have yet one more sport to go towards working collectively in Germany this summer season, when Iceland would play in a bunch in opposition to Romania, Slovakia and Belgium.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)