The International Return of Gylfi Sigurdsson

"His absence from the Everton line-up for the year before his contract expired in 2022… has never been publicly explained." Well... yes and no.

Based on the mitigation requested in the first PSR independent commission, "the FA suspended Player X from all football activity, making it impossible for him to perform his contractual duties."

Furthermore, "On 23 August 2021, Everton dismissed Player X. Everton sought advice on the possibility of suing Player X for breach of contract but elected not to do so."

"Everton had dismissed Player X, leaving available to it (it asserted) a claim against that player for losses of £10 million. However, it decided not to pursue that claim on grounds associated with [concerns for] the player's welfare."

It's tempting to assume that the police must have made representations to the club and the FA that were so strong at the time, his continuing employment by the club could not be contemplated.

The inordinate length of the investigation, and the incredible silence over what the case really involved, will be forever a question of intrigue.

Innocent until proven guilty, although that doesn't quite fit these days, with trial by social media and the realms of conspiracy.

Same happened to Dave Jones at Southampton. Another screwing by the FA.

Tainted goods, rightly or wrongly we may never know, but I would say this: he is together again with his wife and family, perhaps the biggest indicator of reality in this nightmare, for no woman I know would want to be associated with someone destroyed with allegations of this nature. As you rightly observe, intrigue, or embarrassment.

Trial by innuendo and social media is no substitute for truth but the undue haste of his castigated departure has left a stain on the whole situation as, after two years, his name is officially cleared… but it isn't is it? At least not by the jury of social media who condemned his name and left his reputation a bit of intrigue on yesterday's chip paper wrapping.

Yes, investigations are protracted regarding such allegations, 2 years minimum. Also, the Club has a duty of care regarding their own safeguarding policies and are governed by them.

At the end of the 2-year period a found innocent party normally walks away, thoroughly sick of what they have gone through, never seeking redress.

They also are beyond what people think of them, since such allegations are 'incredibly sticky', to quote a top Barrister I know, even after being found innocent.

The proverbial Shakespearean "man more sinned against than sinning".

It's such a pity, then, in the light of Gylfi's seemingly noble response and "recovery", to see usual suspects like Nick Page (3) jumping on keyboards to use this personal and highly individual redemption story to yet again attack our club when none of us need to be told any part of how badly Gylfi was let down. (I'm shocked that Mr. Page did not lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of dead narcissist and dishonest Kenwright). Never once in (3) did Mr. Page celebrate this wonderful turn of events in the lives of Gylfi and his family, Never once did he say a word about the individual, personal, and human Gylfi.

We don't need to be reminded. We want to enjoy this wonderful story. I suspect that Gylfi is rather less bombastic and cheerleading than Mr. Page when he has every reason to be publicly fuming and some. But to his eternal credit and character portrait, Gylfi has decided not to take any legal action. It appears to me that he understands what matters.

Christine, I hope that your recovery is well under way.

But on the point of the FA suspending him, did this happen to the likes of Antony and Partey?

Gylfi Sigurdsson's Icelandic return: ‘Everybody here was happy to see him back in football'
Daniel Taylor, 8 September 2024

Reykjavik, Iceland. The conversation is about Gylfi Sigurdsson, as it often is here in the land of ice and fire, and sometimes it is difficult to know what is true and what is not.

A few weeks ago, Sigurdsson's latest club, Valur, travelled to Scotland to play St Mirren in the second leg of a UEFA Conference League qualifier. Officially, the reason given for Sigurdsson's absence from the squad was a back problem. But then other stories began to circulate.

“I was told he didn't travel to Scotland because when they played (the first leg) in Reykjavik, there were some St Mirren fans chanting bad stuff,” Vidar Halldorsson, the former Iceland national team captain, tells The Athletic. “It seems that some football fans can be so nasty if they want.”

When you are the most famous and talked-about footballer your country has ever produced, perhaps you just have to get accustomed to your life being a subject of fascination.

On Friday, Sigurdsson won his 81st cap in a Nations League tie against Montenegro. Tonight (Monday), when Iceland are away against Turkey in the same competition, it will be number 82. Nobody should be too surprised if Iceland's record all-time scorer has gone past a century of international appearances by the time his playing career is done.

Against that backdrop, even the people in charge at Valur will accept that a player who scored 67 Premier League goals, wore the colours of Everton and Tottenham Hotspur and once commanded a £45million ($59m) transfer fee (a record for Everton that still stands seven years later) should, in theory, be playing club football at a considerably higher level.

But there are good reasons why Sigurdsson, who turned 35 yesterday, has preferred to go back to Reykjavik, the world's most northern capital, after his absence from the Everton line-up for the year before his contract expired in 2022. That absence has never been publicly explained.

Where, for instance, would he be better received? “He's by far the biggest name in (Icelandic) football,” says Halldorsson, the long-standing chairman of Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjardar (FH for short), the nearby club where a schoolboy Sigurdsson came through the junior system. “Everybody here was happy to see him back in football.”

That, he says, includes the Icelandic media, which feels important given the scrutiny on Sigurdsson. “They are very supportive of him,” Halldorsson explains. “They always have been. The only thought, because he hadn't played for two and a half years, was how difficult it would be for him to come back.”

Sigurdsson saw a penalty saved by Ederson on his last appearance for Everton, a 5-0 defeat at Manchester City in May 2021. His return to football might well have been with DC United in MLS. Wayne Rooney, a former Everton team-mate and DC's head coach at that time, wanted it to happen. Talks were arranged but, in the end, nothing came of it.

Instead, Sigurdsson decided to remain in Europe. First, he had a short spell at two-time Danish champions Lyngby and, when that did not work out, the deal was arranged with Valur in Besta deild karla (Iceland's “best men's division”), where his team-mates include the former US international Aron Johannsson.

Sigurdsson, unsurprisingly, is regarded as the best player in the domestic league. Valur are one of his homeland's biggest, richest and most successful clubs, having won the league championship 23 times and the Icelandic Cup on 11 occasions. They also hold the domestic attendance record from a European Cup tie against Benfica in 1968 when 18,243 packed into their old ground. And it is evident that Sigurdsson is making the most of his new life.

“It seems so, and thank God for that,” says Borkur Edvardsson, Valur's chairman. “It (the move) was meant to happen, I think. It's different for him than when he was playing with Tottenham and Everton, but it's more family-oriented here. He has found his balance in life and I think he is happy.”

Edvardsson says the reception from Valur's supporters has been unanimously positive since Sigurdsson's arrival in March. In fact, he sounds slightly puzzled by the question, given it was such a big event for his club. Sigurdsson, he says, is “an easy-going guy, very professional, on and off the pitch, and a role model for our younger players”.

It has not gone entirely to plan, however, since Sigurdsson was brought in with the challenge of turning the 2023 runners-up into the 2024 champions. This season, in a league played from April to October, Valur are a long way back in third position, 11 points behind leaders Breidablik.

“Obviously, we wanted to finish top,” says Edvarsson. “We signed Gylfi and a couple of other players, but it has been a bit of a struggle. We are not so happy about it. But the only thing we can do is work on it, see what went wrong and prepare for next season.”

These days, Valur's home attendances do not stray much higher than 1,000. The 2,465-capacity Hlidarendi stadium opened in 2008 and Edvarsson talks of “a beautiful stadium, a beautiful clubhouse… just a family-friendly atmosphere”.

It is not, however, a place the pompous and pretentious of the Premier League would consider particularly glamorous.

There is only one stand, which is attached to the side of an indoor sports hall. The pitch is artificial grass, which makes sense as the weather this close to the Arctic can be pretty brutal (Iceland is one of the few countries in the world not to have mosquitos), and there is not much on the other three sides of the ground bar some advertising hoardings, an old-fashioned scoreboard and some wooden crates that spectators can stand on for a better view.

It is the kind of stadium you would expect in, say, England's seventh or eighth tier.

When the team played that recent game at St Mirren, there were 22 Valur fans in the away end. It finished 4-1 to their opponents.

Watch Sigurdsson closely, though, and you can still make out the sureness of touch that has helped him win player of the season awards with three of his former clubs — Reading, Swansea City and Hoffenheim of Germany's Bundesliga.

You have to assume he missed the comfort blanket of football — why else would a man with his career earnings have returned to the sport?

“Playing football can be a therapy,” Age Hareide, Iceland's national-team manager, tells The Athletic. “Because when you play football, you don't think about anything else. You're concentrating on winning the game, doing your best and working hard.

“I know players who have had different problems. I had a player who was at (Norwegian club) Molde and had a girlfriend with cancer. She died while they were fighting for the championship and he said that, while she was near to death, he couldn't sleep at night. He was distraught. He came to training and it helped him to start to deal with it.

“After she died, seeing his team-mates helped. It (football) is a good place to come because there are no questions — they (team-mates) just want you as a footballer.”

Hareide has been in the football industry for more than half a century, including spells as a player for Manchester City and Norwich City in the 1980s, five years as manager of Norway and a four-year stint with Denmark's national team that involved taking them to the 2018 World Cup.

“Gylfi has been one of the best football players Iceland has ever seen,” says the 70-year-old Norwegian. “I've seen him from the outside, too. When I coached Denmark, we met Iceland in a friendly. Iceland were preparing for Euro 2016 (where they famously beat England 2-1 to reach the quarter-finals) and he scored against us.

“He has football in his legs, you know. And inside his head. The way he moves, the way he picks up spaces — it's a natural gift. He still has these gifts. I think he's a natural-born footballer, in many ways.”

Sigurdsson was not involved in Iceland's shock 1-0 pre-European Championship win against England at Wembley in June because of an injury. The game against Montenegro was his third since returning to the international setup last October and, officially, it brought in a crowd of 4,687. Unofficially, it was a good few more because the open ends at Laugardalsvollur, Iceland's national stadium, meant spectators could stand among the surrounding trees to watch for nothing.

Iceland won, 2-0. Orri Oskarsson, the rising star of Icelandic football, got the first and at least those trees provided some protection from the winds that had been whipping up the ocean, cancelling all the boat trips, whale-watching tours and Northern Lights expeditions that form a daily part of Reykjavik's tourism trade.

As for Sigurdsson, the two-time winner of Iceland's Sports Personality of the Year award was deprived of the chance of a 28th international goal when a second-half penalty was scrubbed out by a VAR intervention. He did, however, set up the second goal. Sigurdsson was substituted after 65 minutes, replaced by Andri Gudjohnsen (son of former Chelsea and Barcelona forward Eidur), and left the pitch to applause from the crowd and an appreciative handshake from his manager.

It was also noticeable how often the noisiest group of Iceland fans, known as Tolfan (the 12th Man), sang his name.

Outside the stadium, a statue depicts Albert Gudmundsson, Iceland's first professional player.

It might be a stretch to imagine Sigurdsson will be honoured the same way one day (though don't entirely rule it out). What is clear, however, is that the people of Iceland are unquestioningly in his corner. And maybe, in his position, that is enough.

“I'm sure he could still play in the Premier League — he's that good,” says Edvardsson. “But he is comfortable and happy with Valur. He wants to be with his family in Iceland and take part in a normal life.”

If we had stood by him as you say, we would have continued to pay his £110k a week salary for the final year of his contract with zero chance he would play.

As Michael said, Everton could also have sued him for breach of contract but chose not to due to concerns for his well-being. We were under enormous PSR pressure, and the bloody Premier League showed no flexibility in allowing us to factor in the financial loss of this situation into our submissions to them.

How exactly did the club let him down? As with Dele, I think the club handled it very sensitively and with care to the player.

The FA are to blame, together with the tortuously slow police and CPS investigation which left him under enormous stress and anxiety for 2 years.

"If the club had a backbone instead of a fucking worm running the place, they'd have stood by him. Innocent until proven guilty, although that doesn't quite fit these days, with trial by social media and the realms of conspiracy".

The sheer irony in that! Trial by media, through a post on social media; in the realms of conspiracy theory. You couldn't write it - well...

Brent (10), I hope that the intricacies of your post are not lost on Mr Page.

I'm still confused by all the well wishes to him. All I can tell is that a complaint was made against him and that after a year (?) the case was dropped. I've no idea if he did or didn't commit a crime and so I've no feeling towards him either way.

I'd just be conscious of the other party in the “event”. Victims can be quickly forgotten about when there's a vacuum of information and articles such as this are written.

It's quite possible that Sigurdsson himself was the victim in this instance.

As Adele said, Rumour has it... but as Michael said, nothing, anywhere has been released or claimed, no leaks or releases from anyone.

Trial by innuendo and hearsay... in the end, people suffer, truth is forgotten or worse, ignored.

There was also the likelihood of more people being involved but that hasn't materialised, or has been brushed under the carpet to save the Police more embarrassment after the incompetence shown in the first place. In my opinion.

Good luck to them, I hope they find peace in their homeland.

I can't help think the club knee jerked, even if they were dictated to by the FA.

He wasn't prosecuted, we lost a player.

I too wish him and his family well.

I just feel very sorry for the guy who had his career ruined. Glad he is back with his wife and kids. Going to be hard to put it all behind you but best wishes Gylfi for the next 50 or so years.

Come back and see BMD in 10 years.

Yes, I think we all agree with those sentiments.

There is no such thing as "fairness" in life -- it is inherently unfair. Bad things happen to good people every minute of every day.

Of course we will never know what really happened here, or whether Sigurdsson "deserved" the consequences of whatever he did -- perhaps in one thoughtless moment -- but his family certainly didn't. Again, fairness doesn't figure into it.

And I'm going to go against the prevailing breeze here and say that our club did exactly what it had to do. Perhaps more than any other club in the Premier League, Everton upholds the values of family and community.

There was only one proper path to take, in my opinion, given what was known at the time, and the club took it. The subsequent rumours and the lack of prosecution make it appear unjust in retrospect, but in the moment, there was no choice.

The club took the only course of action it could once the FA suspended Sigurdsson indefinitely. I can’t think of any employer who would have acted differently when faced with the same dilemma.

Put in its simplest terms, an employee must be able to fuflil their employment contract to remain in employment.

Sorry, but there it is.

We all make stupid decisions in life, his alleged ones cost him his career, almost his family, and heaped shame and ridicule on all concerned. Whilst the facts are few, the implications are many. Questions have never been asked or answered but it's a salutary lesson for all concerned.

I think the club was given no option but to suspend the player based on what they were told. One hopes they asked the player himself for his position before terminating his contract. Exactly what advice the club was given and by whom determined the outcome, rightly or wrongly.

Hindsight is tempting but, like Mike and Steve say, the club was left with few options once the charges were made. Whilst none of this would have happened if the player had simply walked away, the role of Manchester Police and the CPS has to be questioned. It was decisions made by the above and its framing and context, that determined the actions of the club.

Very many organisations now have "Safeguarding Policies" in place. The generally accepted "best practice" is that if someone is being investigated for allegations involving a minor then that individual is automatically suspended until the matter is resolved.

It's highly likely the club and FA were simply told nothing more than the truth which was that the player was being investigated in relation to allegations involving a minor.

I imagine your employer would handle an allegation against one of your colleagues broadly in line with what I posted #28.

A solicitor I know says he deals with one case a week relating to child abuse allegations and it is a common thread brought up in couple breakups.

I also know a female solicitor involved in family law, who finds allegations are made in most cases.

But, 2 years later, a destroyed career and smeared reputation later, there is nothing, cleared of all charges in a court of law but forever tarnished in the court of social media.

Those who don't know, judge... it's far easier but nearly always wrong.

What exactlly is a "third party allegation" and why is it important how far removed you are from an alleged offence if you feel you need to report it?

If the above were not the case, why hasn't the story been sold to the rags? Why hasn't the offended party spoken out? There is to my knowledge no out-of-court settlement with the player... there is no detail officially anywhere. Why? No case to answer?

No matter what, Sigurdsson doesn't come out of it clean even if the rumour was true. But he has lost his reputation and livelihood when he has been found with no case to answer.

It seems he's been crucified by public opinion – misinformed!

Our points should be returned, as should monies lost.

Either way, our club (who could have handled it better) lost an enormous amount of money out of it. A sell-on fee before his contract came up and the wages we paid whilst he wasn't playing — don't forget, he was on over £100k a week. Someone owes us for this. That of course is a fool's hope, Everton that.

I always thought he was a poor signing, not his fault but we overpaid by a good £20M. Sigh.

A great midfielder who transgressed at Sheffield Wednesday and was banned for life by the FA for betting irregularities.

Everton having paid a UK record transfer fee for him not much more than a year earlier, remember which club lost out?

So history does repeat itself.

[I was going to link to a full feature we carried on Kay's sad story but Google search is not cooperating…]

But I'm not sure I'd agree with the parallels you seem to be inferring:

Kay was playing for another club a the time; Sigurdsson was already an Everton player.

Kay's transgressions were revealed and widely publicised through investigative journalism; Sigurdsson's case was (and still is) shrouded in complete secrecy, with journalists firstly banned from, and now presumably wary of investigating.

Kay's transgression was a victimless crime; Sigurdsson was arrested and charged for something that is presumed to have one (or more?) victims.

Kay was duly punished as a criminal; Sigurdsson never received any official punishment (although his life and career were put on hold);

Kay was banned for life; Sigurdsson was able to resume his playing career, albeit not at the same level.

And most important: Kay was shown to have broken the rules; Sigurdsson may not have actually done anything wrong – we just don't really know.

Specifically, the virtually immediate FA suspension, which I had struggled to understand, more fully explains Brendan's comment @28:

He [Mendy] was arrested … and suspended by City at that time, and also suspended by England’s Football Association, which had acted — according to the judgment — due to one of the complainants in the criminal case being aged 17 at the time of the alleged offences. Mendy’s ban was, effectively, a safeguarding measure. The following month… City stopped paying his wages.

Interesting too that the club was called out for not paying his wages after they had suspended him:

His case was predicated on him wanting to fulfil his obligations to the club but that he faced an “unavoidable impediment” in doing so due to the bail conditions imposed on him … and the FA’s suspension.

City argued they could not involve Mendy in training and matches because of his FA suspension, the time he was in police custody and his bail conditions, and that those “full impediments” were a result of the player’s behaviour.

In her written judgment, Judge Dunlop described Mendy as believing “that he is an innocent man whose career has been ruined, and life blighted, by false sexual allegations and that the football club … effectively abandoned him in his hour of need”.

Crucially, Judge Dunlop also highlighted that the lack of specific provision in Mendy’s contract for City to withhold wages in the event of an FA suspension or bail conditions preventing him from working “was an important part of the reason for this decision”.

It does make you wonder, if Sigurdsson is technically 'innocent' of somewhat similar charges, does he have similar grounds – and now an almost parallel case law precedent – to go back and sue the club for unpaid wages?

And what of PSR? Everton were going to sue him £10M for breach of contract… say Everton owe him £6.9M in wages. There's an arbitrary £16.9M swing in club income or losses right there, showing what nonsense it is when the entire basis of PSR is predicated on supposed "sporting advantage".

Mendy's ban was, effectively, a safeguarding measure.

It wasn't though. That's why it fell apart.

Mendy's ban was, effectively, a safeguarding measure.

I interpreted that in context to mean his FA ban (which is the bit I had not fully clocked to in Sigurdson's case).

I'm not sure the FA ban "fell apart" as you say. Wasn't it in place until the case(s) against Mendy were dismissed and he was free to play again?

Age plays a part in these things. If the victim is over 16 and the perpetrator is in their early twenties... not so much of an an issue. If the perp is 30+... different ball game.

I meant City's case for not paying Mendy fell apart.