Bjarni Guðjónsson

Bjarni was born in Akranes. He began his career at his hometown club ÍA, before moving to English club Newcastle United in 1997 for £500,000. He failed to break into the first team at the club and left a year later for Belgian club Genk before returning to England in 2000 with Stoke City in a £250,000 signing joining up with his father Guðjón Þórðarson who was manager. He became a regular in the first team and made 53 appearances in the 2000–01 season however he was transfer listed at the end of the season as his father felt Bjarni was struggling to deal with being the son of the manager. No transfer away from the club was forthcoming and Bjarni stayed for the 2001–02 season and this time played 54 matches as Stoke gained promotion via the play-offs. Despite gaining promotion his father was sacked by the board. Bjarni stayed at Stoke and helped the club to avoid relegation before he joined his brother Þórður Guðjónsson at VfL Bochum on a free transfer. He struggled to cement a place in the first team at Bochum and was loaned out to Coventry City in 2004 where he excelled under the management of Eric Black. Coventry signed him on a free later that year however he struggled for game time under new manager Peter Reid and eventually fell out of favour. He was signed on a free by Plymouth Argyle who he stayed with for two years and was a popular character, scoring once against Everton in the FA Cup, before joining ÍA again in 2006. In his second spell at ÍA he stayed for two…

Bjarni made his debut for Iceland as a substitute for Helgi Sigurðsson in a friendly match against Slovakia in April 1997 and has been capped 19 more times since, scoring once against Liechtenstein in a World Cup qualifier in 1997, as well as captaining his side in a 2008 fixture.

Club

International

ÍA

Úrvalsdeild: 1995, 1996 Icelandic Cup: 1996 Icelandic League Cup: 1996 Genk

Belgian First Division: 1998–99 Stoke City

Football League Second Division play-offs: 2002 Football League Trophy: 1999–2000