Árni Gautur Arason

This is an Icelandic name. The last name is a patronymic or matronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Árni.

Árni Gautur Arason

Personal information
Date of birth	(1975-05-07) 7 May 1975
Place of birth	Reykjavik, Iceland
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 1 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Free agent
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1994–1996	ÍA	6	(0)
1996–1997	Stjarnan	18	(0)
1998–2003	Rosenborg	81	(0)
2003–2004	Manchester City	0	(0)
2004–2007	Vålerenga	90	(0)
2008	Thanda Royal Zulu	6	(0)
2008–2010	Odd Grenland	62	(0)
2011	Lierse SK	2	(0)
National team‡
-1997	Iceland U21	10	(0)
1998–2010	Iceland	71	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 30 April 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 16:47, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Árni Gautur Arason (born 7 May 1975 in Reykjavík) is an Icelandic football goalkeeper. Árni is also an educated lawyer from the University of Iceland.

Club career

He played for Rosenborg between January 1998 and December 2003, also making several UEFA Champions League appearances for the club. After leaving Rosenborg, he had a brief spell at Manchester City in the spring of 2004, serving as understudy to David James, but only made two FA Cup appearances for the club.

In the first of these, against Tottenham at White Hart Lane, City found themselves 3-0 down at half time after an abject first half performance, and down to 10 men after Joey Barton had been sent off at the half time whistle. Following a Sylvain Distin header early in the second half, City were 3-1 down when Spurs won a free kick about 25 yards out. Christian Ziege had already beaten Árni from a similar distance in the first half, but this time Árni produced a stunning one handed tip onto the crossbar from a full stretch dive to his left, Gus Poyet could have headed the rebound into an open net, but Árni scrambled back to his right to save this effort too. A goal here would arguably have killed the game off but after the brilliant double save City went on to win 4-3 in what has been described as one of the greatest FA Cup comebacks of all time. Árni's part in the historic win has never been forgotten by the City faithful.

He subsequently went on to join Vålerenga in the summer of 2004.

On 30 November 2007, Árni's contract expired and he left Vålerenga. In March 2008 he joined South African club Thanda Royal Zulu on a short contract, before moving back to Norway joining Odd Grenland in the summer the same year.

Árni is a good and stable keeper who has played a lot of Norwegian Premier League football, and been one of the Norwegian Premier League's best goalkeepers in the 2000s.

International career

He made his debut in an August 1998 friendly match against Latvia and is still a regular for the Icelandic national team, earning over 60 international caps since. He has not featured for the national team since leaving Norwegian club Vålerenga in 2007 until October 2008, but still was on bench in two matches after that.

Personal life

In autumn 2005, Árni had a daughter with his girlfriend Solveig Thorarinsdottir.

Honours

Club

Rosenborg BK

• Norwegian Premier League Champion: 2000, 2001, 2002
• Norwegian Football Cup Win: 1999

Vålerenga

• Norwegian Premier League Champion: 2005

Individual

Kniksen award as the Norwegian league's goalkeeper of the year in 2001 and 2005.

External links

• Árni Gautur Arason at National-Football-Teams.com