Marked for Birkir Heimisson
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Dec 2029
Every point is an argument now for Valur
Position 11 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market3 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valur can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Frederik Schram commits to Valur for another 2 years.
Squad3 Dec 2029
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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Birkir Heimisson 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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
In brief
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Boardroom
$5.2M taken back off the Valur table
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Boardroom
Valur keep producing them
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Jul 2029
8 matches without a win for Valur
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Valur are no longer polite ones.
Squad23 Jul 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market23 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad23 Jul 2029
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.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Lúkas Logi Heimisson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad23 Jul 2029
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for João Rafael, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match21 Jul 2029
Valur and IBV cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. IBV came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jul 2029
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match11 Jul 2029
Valur through in the cup
A 1‑1 win over Fjolnir, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match16 Jul 2029
Every point is an argument now for Valur
Position 12 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market16 Jul 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match14 Jul 2029
7 matches without a win for Valur
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Valur are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kristján Oddur Haagensen did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad16 Jul 2029
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Franz Pálsson 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tryggvi Hrafn Haraldsson, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valur can pretend not to have heard.
Match26 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Valur
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match26 Aug 2028
Still nobody has beaten Valur
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Valur know it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Gísli Laxdal in a row with a teammate
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.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.47 on the card, and the Valur support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Birkir Heimisson commits to Valur for another 3 years.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ástbjörn Þórðarson, and the manager let it.
Match8 Jul 2028
Vikingur left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Lúkas Logi Heimisson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Valur
Gísli Laxdal 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.
The terraces10 Jul 2028
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Jul 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valur, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match1 Jul 2028
Whatever happens, Valur do not lose
9 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings3 Jul 2028
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Albin Skoglund and Valur agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match1 Jul 2028
Leiknir made Valur work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings3 Jul 2028
Adam Ægir Pálsson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.46. 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Valur training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bjarni Mark Duffield 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Valur know it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Valur
Jónatan Ingi Jónsson 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.
Match10 Jun 2028
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.
Match10 Jun 2028
Three points for Valur, 2‑0 the final word against KR in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Bjarni Mark Duffield falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexander Helgi Sigurðarson and Valur agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“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.
Market12 Jun 2028
No place for Edon Osmani in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Edon Osmani has his answer from Valur; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market12 Jun 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valur know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.