Cairo (AFP)

At the World Handball Championship, Iceland has been meeting the big nations, like France on Friday, for decades and despite its small pool of 360,000 inhabitants.

But it now also exports its coaches, at the head of four selections in Egypt.

"A small nation with a big heart."

This is how goalkeeper Björgvin Gustavsson, Olympic vice-champion in Beijing in 2008, summarizes for AFP the permanent feat achieved by the Nordic island, capable of competing with the best selections with as many inhabitants as the Vosges or the Charente.

Already sixth at the 1961 World Championship, as then in 1986 and 2011, fifth at the 1997 World Cup, its best ranking, third at Euro 2010, Iceland made history in Beijing by becoming the smallest medalist nation of 'a team sport.

In Cairo, the “Strákarnir okkar” (“our boys”) are defending their chances without their star Aron Palmarsson (Barcelona), injured, and with a rejuvenated team like Ellidi Vidarsson, 22.

"We have three players here with us who play in Iceland. The rest play around the world," said the pivot of Gummersbach (German 2nd division) for AFP.

Mainly in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, but also Spain (Palmarsson) and France (Kristjan Krisjansson in Aix-en-Provence), "everyone loves Icelandic players," Vidarsson prides himself.

Who lacks a few centimeters (192) and kilos (88) for a pivot, but the Icelanders have learned to compensate.

"We have a limited number of tall players and we have to deal with these players who come from the young categories," said Halldor Johann Sigfusson, the current coach of Bahrain, in an interview with AFP.

"That's why we started to defend aggressively in 6-0: we don't have the size, we can't stay at 7m and block shots, but we have fast guys."

- "Work ethic" -

The secret of the islanders is "the work ethic", says Gustavsson.

"As kids, we train almost every day," said center half Elvar Jonsson.

"We are hard workers with a long tradition of handball, probably a good knowledge of the sport", confirms Gudmundur Gudmundsson, 60, Olympic champion with Denmark in 2016.

The current Iceland coach is the best known of a whole battalion of technicians who have become very popular abroad.

"Their recipe is to find information, not be arrogant and always try to learn," says Gustavsson.

In Egypt, besides Gudmundsson and Sigfusson, there is Alfred Gislasson, who coaches Germany after leading Kiel for a decade, and Dagur Sigurdsson, who has just achieved the feat of hooking Croatia with Japan (29-29) .

- A Spain - Iceland match -

Four coaches in Egypt: only Spain is doing as well with Valero Rivera (Qatar), Roberto Garcia Parrondo (Egypt), Jordi Ribera (Spain) and Manuel Cadenas (Argentina), whom Sigfusson meets at Gezira Palace where their teams are accommodated.

"He enjoys Icelandic handball and I enjoy Spanish handball, so it's a mutual agreement!"

After Gudmundsson and Aron Kristjansson, Sigfusson is already the third Icelandic coach of Bahrain, which has logically adopted the "Icelandic system" which made Denmark triumph over Gudmundsson in Rio.

"The defense is the same, adapted according to the opponent," said the 42-year-old coach, former international and now coach of Selfoss, in the south of the island.

His club, which won its first title in 2019 in a still amateur championship, is "one of the best training centers in Europe", believes Sigfusson, who is one of the few employees.

Previously, the amateur trainer combined his passion with a job as a police officer, and worked up to 14 or 16 hours a day, he estimates.

"My parents started working in the fishing industry at the age of 12 or 13," he says to illustrate the discipline and the hard side of the Nordics.

The French will taste it on Friday.

© 2021 AFP