Ívar Ingimarsson

Early years

Ívar was born in Reykjavík and raised in Stöðvarfjörður. He began his career with his local side Súlan. From the age of 13 he played for a merged side Súlan participated in, playing three seasons of senior football in total before joining Valur in Reykjavík, making 44 league appearances and scoring five goals after spending his first year there playing youth football again. In March 1998, he signed for fellow Icelandic side ÍBV, making a further 36 appearances in the Úrvalsdeild, and scoring five goals, winning the double (Icelandic Premier Division and the Icelandic Cup) in 1998. Ívar joined Torquay United on loan from ÍBV in October 1999, scoring on his debut in a 2–1 victory at league leaders Barnet on 23 October 1999. Rumours were rife that a deal had already been done to take Ívar elsewhere at the end of his loan spell, and, after four league games for the Gulls, he duly signed for Brentford in November 1999 for £150,000, confirming the fears of Torquay fans that he would never be a permanent fixture at Plainmoor. While at Brentford, the band The Bluetones named one of their instrumental B-sides Ingimarsson in his honour; Adam Devlin, the guitarist, being a Bees fan. He was released by Brentford in June 2002, the Bees unable to pay his wages. He signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers the following month, but was unable to establish himself at Molineux, resulting in a loan spell with Brighton & Hove Albion in February 2003.

Reading

In October…

Ívar represented Iceland at under-17, under-19 and under-21 level, making 16, 11 and 14 appearances respectively. He made his senior debut for Iceland in a June 1998 friendly match against South Africa. He opted to retire from international football for a period of just under two years because of arguments with the former joint-managers Ásgeir Sigurvinsson and Logi Ólafsson. He became available again once the pair were replaced by Eyjólfur Sverrisson, and made several further appearances before retiring again in 2007.

As of match played 2 January 2012.

International

Source:

After retiring from football Ívar returned to Iceland and moved into the tourist industry. His cousin, Gunnar Thorvaldsson was also a professional footballer and spent the second half of the 2009–10 season on loan at Reading.