Hey, Let's Cheer For Iceland

Tiny Iceland shocked the world by qualifying for its first World Cup. In Russia, the goal is simple: Shock the world again.

- Bruce Schoenfeld

It’s an unremarkable corner house, white like the winter sky. You pull open the door and hang your coat by the staircase. A secretary serves tea.

You contemplate the only photo on an otherwise empty wall: a women’s football team celebrating after a win. Then Gudni Johannesson, Iceland’s president, enters the room and extends a hand. “The good thing about Iceland,” he says, “is that the president is totally free to go to football. There are people who claim that I went for this job just so I could get tickets to all the games.”

Being the head of state in Iceland is different from in the U.S., or Italy, or even Holland or Chile. Johannesson’s workspace is a waist-high table inside a bland office that might be the lobby of a Westin or Hyatt. When he prepares sandwiches at the football tournaments that his 8- and 10-year old play in on weekends, there’s no security detail, no pool reporter, no screaming protesters. “I can live a normal life,” Johannesson says. Even better, he can clear his schedule for this summer’s World Cup. Because unlike the U.S., Italy, Holland or Chile, his team is going.

Iceland in the World Cup? This is a country that would lose a tug-of-war to Honolulu, although Icelanders are determined and hardy, so maybe it wouldn’t. Only a decade ago, this tiny nation of 350,000 was bad enough at football to get thumped 3-0 by Liechtenstein (population 38,000), in a game that wasn’t as close as the score. Yet last year, it managed to finish atop perhaps the most difficult qualifying group in Europe. Before that, it shocked England in the 2016 Euros and made the quarterfinals.