Sigurvinsson follows his beliefs

Early exports
One of the early exports was Asgeir Sigurvinsson, who made a name for himself in the German Bundesliga with FC Bayern München and VfB Stuttgart in the 1980s. Sigurvinsson is now in charge of the national team, after a stint as consultant with the Football Association of Iceland (KSI). His side are currently second in UEFA EURO 2004™ qualifying Group 5, and uefa.com caught up with him ahead of Wednesday's vital qualifier against the Faroe Islands.

uefa.com: First of all, how are you relishing the new challenge as Iceland's national coach?

Asgeir Sigurvinsson: The president talked to me, and I could not say no to the request to help out, since they believed I could do it. I took two days to make up my mind. I said yes, and the job has been enjoyable and exciting.

uefa.com: Does the fact that you enjoyed such a distinguished career as a footballer give you an advantage in earning respect from your players?

Sigurvinsson: When I was consultant at the Icelandic association, I kept my distance from the players and did not interfere with training. Still, I know them well and even played with some of them. Certainly it means something that my career was good. The players look up to me a little bit.

uefa.com: You played under a variety of different coaches. Are you taking your influences as a coach from these people?

Sigurvinsson: I do not think it is possible to copy any trainer. You must do things according to your own beliefs. Certainly you can have experience of many good trainers with different styles. But the main point is to follow your own beliefs – it is not possible to copy anything.

uefa.com: Do teams tend to take Iceland too lightly?

Sigurvinsson: I think this has changed over the last few years. Small countries are becoming stronger, and there have been interesting results in European tournaments in recent years.

uefa.com: Did you expect to get this far in the EURO 2004™ qualifying campaign?

Sigurvinsson: I took over saying that I wanted nine points out of the next three games, with seven points as a worst-case scenario. To ensure second place, we need to win two of the three games coming up. We will take one game at a time, and if everything goes our way, we should succeed.

uefa.com: You were a rarity at the time as a player – an export from Iceland. Now, there are many players from Iceland who ply their trade abroad.

Sigurvinsson: We have always had good and promising young players and, fortunately, foreign clubs have been interested in Iceland. The problem in Iceland is the short season. From the age of 18, players need to go abroad and play football for the whole year. We can never expect to have eleven world-class players. However, people have been looking to Iceland for many years, and hopefully it will continue.

uefa.com: What are your strengths as a coach – are you a tactician or more of a motivator?

Sigurvinsson: I think my strength is determination. Motivating players for a national game should not be needed. You can give them self-confidence and faith in what they are going to do. So it is a mix of these things. I am not a coach who screams and jumps all the time on the sideline. My opinion is that there is no need for that - the more you shout, the more it will confuse players.