REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Remarkable stories of underdog achievement rarely have much to do with luck. Typically they are the product of at least one special factor, one powerful enough to offset all the reasons for why the team or individual shouldn’t succeed.
In the case of Iceland and its wondrous, extraordinary and thoroughly unexpected surge to the quarterfinals of soccer’s European Championship, the key word is strength.
Strength of character, so much that England wilted 2-1 in the Round of 16 on Monday.
Strength of belief, enough to crush the soul and psyche of arguably soccer’s most confident man, Cristiano Ronaldo, while tying Portugal 1-1 in group play.
And strength in unity. Roughly 10% of this tiny nation’s 330,000 citizens trekked to France to cheer on the team.
If you want to talk strength, Iceland is the place to come. Magnus Ver Magnusson, four-time winner of the world’s strongest man contest, calls Reykjavik home. He has a theory on how Iceland’s soccer sons have upstaged the odds.
“If you think about the past and where we come from, life was really hard,” Ver Magnusson told USA TODAY Sports during a conversation at his local gym. “When the Vikings settled here, it was a really tough life and only the strongest survived. That’s still in the genes. You get used to working and being physical, learning to farm or fish. The footballers have strength in their nature. You can see it.”
Iceland is a remote and sparsely populated place, full of raw scenic beauty and friendly locals. It has as many people as Santa Ana, Calif., or around 150 times fewer than England, the opponent it embarrassed Monday.
Logic would suggest that Iceland should not have qualified for the tournament for the first time, let alone made it to the last eight, where it meets host France on Sunday. However, another key piece to the conundrum of the triumphant underdog is turning a weakness into a strength.
“Our team are like brothers,” said Magnus Magnusson, whose soccer agency Total Football represents 10 Iceland squad members. Magnusson is no relation to the strongman. In a small country, such confusions are common.
“One of the disadvantages of being so small is obvious — you have less players,” the agent added. “But the big advantage is these guys have played together since they were young, for club teams and national youth teams.”
That unity has been picked up upon by the army of traveling supporters.
“If one guy makes a mistake, his best friend is behind him ready to make up for it,” popular Icelandic singer-songwriter Jon Jonsson said by telephone from France. “They have this incredible passion and will. It is inspirational. It is beautiful. It is a kind of mania, and the whole country is gripped by it.”
Much of Iceland’s game plan is built upon resolute defensive efforts, with the players ending each game exhausted after long periods chasing down opponents.
Yet there is talent, too. Veteran Eidur Gudjohnsen played for Chelsea and FC Barcelona and was not amused when former colleague Frank Lampard, an Englishman playing for New York City FC of Major League Soccer, sent him a text before the Round of 16.
Gudjohnsen couldn’t see why Lampard thought it funny that the two teams were playing each other. No one in England is laughing now.
Instead, the world of soccer is waking up to the Icelandic story and falling deep for it. How can you not? The now-legendary Viking chant and slow clap might be the coolest fan display of this or any other tournament.
Among those performing the awe-inspiring routine after the England game was new President Gudni Johannesson, who shunned the VIP lounge to mix it with the fans, wearing a national team jersey and posing for selfies.
Indeed, everywhere the Iceland fans go, they seem to spread good cheer and collect new admirers.
Jimmy Carter, 25 and from California, made friends with a group of Iceland supporters when they invited him into their card game. When they departed, he was left with fond memories and a new team scarf.
“As soon as you meet them, you realize it is a group of people who are celebrating the best moment of their lives,” Carter said. “But they are happy to let everyone else be part of their party.”
Before its Euro 2016 breakthrough, Iceland had failed to qualify for every World Cup and European Championship since 1974. Now it is ranked No. 34 in the world and set to climb higher.
“Beating England was bigger for us than beating anyone else,” soccer historian and author Stefan Palsson said. “People in Iceland are crazy for English soccer. Young men have tattoos of Manchester United or Chelsea on their skin, not of their Icelandic club. So in that regard it is monumental.”
But perhaps unlike England, Iceland’s soccer chiefs have done so many things that make sense. Kids used to play handball in the winter and saw their soccer progress stymie, before all-weather fields were laid nationwide and indoor soccer schools built.
Economic and population factors mean that Iceland’s domestic league is never going to be a world force and all of the current squad plies its trade overseas. Yet for enterprising players seeking to get a foothold in Europe, there are now opportunities here.
Johnatan Lama, 22, a midfielder from Naples, Fla., moved to Iceland last summer to play for Huginn Seyoisfjorour, in a town of just 800 on the remote east of the island.
“It is tough and physical on the field, but away from it Icelanders are the most honest and welcoming people you could meet,” Lama said. “For the Euro games, it was crazy. Right now is the best time to be in Iceland. Everyone has a smile on their faces. Everyone is loving life.”
Suddenly, wonderfully, Iceland is finding its sporting dream falling into place, for the team and its supporters. Like the group of fans who hustled back from Nice to Paris after the England victory but would have missed their flight home Tuesday morning had it not been delayed.
Or for Jon Jonsson, whose latest single has long been scheduled to be released Friday and speaks about the human tenet of seizing the moment.
Iceland is doing just that, a country whose summer nights never see the sun go down, loving its time in the light.
