Marked for Patrick Pedersen
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Sep 2026
Valur throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with FH the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Valur will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.49, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match5 Sep 2026
Valur come up short against FH
FH left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Villads Nielsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award goes to Patrick Pedersen, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Ragnar Finnbogason to a room that had heard them before.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Patrick Pedersen is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
No mercy from Valur
Keflavik will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Valur were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad31 Aug 2026
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Valur did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Patrick Pedersen, 34, rolls back the years — 10.00
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match29 Aug 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Valur and Keflavik in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, Valur do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jónatan Ingi Jónsson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match19 Aug 2026
Valur bow out of the cup
Keflavik go through and Valur go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad24 Aug 2026
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Patrick Pedersen, 34, rolls back the years — 8.26
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Malmo FF have kept their man, and Valur go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Valur, 2‑0 the final word against KR in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bjarni Mark Duffield was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
No mercy from Valur
Fylkir will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Valur were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Patrick Pedersen takes the afternoon — 9.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrick Pedersen provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.79 for the rest of it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Samúel Kári Friðjónsson commits to Valur for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valur this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
6 goals as Valur and Fylkir go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Valur and Fylkir, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Valur
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jónatan Ingi Jónsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Leiknir will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Rúrik Gunnarsson has pre-agreed a move to Valur, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
SJK come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Valur did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kristján Oddur Haagensen has agreed terms with FH for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market3 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kristján Oddur Haagensen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valur the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Pedersen and Valur agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Valur
Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match1 Aug 2026
Valur get the job done against Fjolnir
A 2‑0 win over Fjolnir, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Adam Ægir Pálsson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.