Heiðar Helguson

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Heiðar Helguson (born 22 August, 1977 in Akureyri; first name commonly anglicised to Heidar) is an Icelandic footballer currently playing as a striker for Watford on loan from Queens Park Rangers.^[1]

Heiðar, who is also an Iceland international, has also notably played for Watford, Fulham, and Lillestrøm.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Lillestrøm

Heiðar came to Lillestrøm S.K. at a young age from Icelandic club Þróttur R. He made his first team debut in 1998, curiously wearing number 1 on his shirt. The next season Helguson became one of the great surprises in Norwegian football scoring 16 league-goals. Helguson was a very popular player, and even had his own fan-club named the Helgusonsons.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Watford

Heiðar was signed by Watford manager Graham Taylor mid-way through the 1999-00 season for a club record £1.5m. Brought in to boost the struggling club's striking department, Heiðar had a torrid debut at home to Liverpool, where he suffered from the physical presence of Reds centre back Sami Hyypiä. However, Heiðar endured and scored in his first game. He later picked up the Display of the Season award for this goal scoring debut against one of the finest clubs in English football. He did so five more times that season. His goals weren't enough to keep Watford up, and the Hertfordshire club were relegated after only one year in the Premier League.

Back in Division 1, Heiðar was part of a Watford side that was undefeated for the first 15 games of the season, topping the league. However, when the side's form slumped in late 2000, Helguson suffered a crisis of confidence - one of several during his first few years at Watford - and was well below his best for a large amount of that campaign.

At the end of the season Taylor retired and was replaced by Gianluca Vialli. Under the Italian's somewhat bizarre tactics Helguson was deployed out of position as a right wing-back, which, understandably, didn't suit him.

With Ray Lewington in charge for the 2002-03 season, Heiðar showed a marked improvement. Although still prone to injury (he didn't start the season until late September), he finished the season Watford's top goal scorer with 13, including goals in Watford's run to the FA Cup semi-Finals. In 2003-04 injury kept Heiðar out of most of the first half of the season. On his return he put in some notable performances, the most notable being his leading of the line against Chelsea in the FA Cup.

2004-05 was Heiðar's best season in a Watford shirt. Relatively free of injury, he scored 20 goals and picked up the "Goal of the Season," "Display of the Season" and "Player of the Season" awards at the end of season awards ceremony. Inevitably his goal tally brought about interest from Premier League clubs and with Watford needing money, the offer from Fulham was accepted.

[edit] Fulham

Heiðar signed for Fulham on June 27, 2005 ^[2] and was largely confined to the bench at the beginning of the campaign. He scored his first goal for Fulham in the 5-4 League Cup victory over Lincoln. More recently he has been enjoying an excellent run in the side, and the front pair of Heidar and Brian McBride caused trouble to the best defences in the Premier League. Heidar scored against Chelsea (penalty), Aston Villa (penalty), West Ham (open play - left foot) and Manchester United (open play - header), a double in a 6-1 win over West Brom, Bolton Wanderers (header as a result of a free kick) and against Middlesbrough (penalty). For the start of the 2006–07 season he was moved from No. 10 to No. 9 at Fulham.

[edit] Bolton Wanderers

On 20 July 2007 it was announced that Heiðar was leaving Fulham to join Bolton Wanderers F.C. for an undisclosed fee, as part of manager Sammy Lee's squad restructuring. Helguson reportedly signed a three-year contract with the Trotters, having been forced to consider his options following the signings of David Healy and Diomansy Kamara.

He made his Bolton debut as a substitute for the injured Kevin Davies on August 11, 2007 with Wanderers already trailing to Newcastle United. Four days later he returned to Fulham for the first time since leaving and got on the scoresheet in a 2-1 Bolton defeat.

It was the end of January 2008 by the time Heiðar got any more playing time, but his return was welcome with Bolton desperately short of firepower having sold Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea earlier on that month. His first appearance back in the side was a goalless draw against old club Fulham where he came off the substitutes bench for the last eight minutes of the game. He scored his first goal for Bolton since coming back from injury 4 days later against Reading in a 2-0 win.

Bolton confirmed in May 2008 that they had sent Heiðar over to Belgium for more surgery in order to have him back for pre-season training.

[edit] Queens Park Rangers

On 20 November, it was announced that Heiðar had joined Queens Park Rangers on an emergency loan until the end of January, 2009.^[3]. However, the loan did not go through until the following Friday.^[4]

After failing to score on his debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers and in his second match against Sheffield Wednesday, Heiðar scored once against Plymouth Argyle and braces against both Preston North End and Blackpool to bag himself 5 goals in his first 10 games. On 2 January, the deal was made permanent for an undisclosed fee.^[5].

[edit] Return to Watford

On 15 September 2009, Watford successfully acquired the services of Heiðar by means of a three month loan from Queens Park Rangers,^[1] meaning the player returned to the club who he played for between 2000 and 2005. He made an immediate impact on his return, assisting one and scoring a brace during his substitute appearance against Leicester City, before being substituted due to injury. He made his fourth appearance of his loan spell at Vicarage Road against Scunthorpe United, scoring his fourth and fifth goal.^[6]

[edit] International career

Heiðar made his debut for Iceland in an April 1999 friendly match against Malta, coming on as a substitite for Ríkharður Daðason, and has so far earned 45 caps, scoring 8 goals.^[7]. After playing in a friendly against Spain in August 2006 a long spell outside the national team followed during which Heiðar announced his retirement from international football, in June 2007.

On 28 August 2008 Heiðar announced his return to international football and was immediately selected in the Icelandic team to face Norway and Scotland a few days later. He scored a goal against Norway in the world cup qualifier as the match ended 2-2. ^[8].

[edit] Name

Heiðar was named Heiðar Sigurjónsson (Sigurjónsson being a patronym) at birth but changed his name to Heiðar Helguson (matronym) later in honour of his mother.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Heiðar Helguson career stats at Soccerbase
• BBC Sport Squad Profile
• Blind, Stupid and Desperate article
• National football teams