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While the world has been stunned into awe by minnows Iceland’s run to the Quarter-Finals of Euro 2016, their journey hits much closer to home for one Aussie, Bentleigh Greens goalkeeper Kile Kennedy.
The 26-year-old traded his home comforts of Cobram in northern Victoria by moving to the island country in 2013, where he spent two years plying his trade inside the Nordic counry for KF Fjarðabyggðar. What at the time seemed like an obscure move to make for the then 24-year-old shot-stopper had its foundations during Kennedy’s time playing college soccer in the states with Florida-based College Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“The move to Iceland came about when I was in the states playing college soccer. My assistant coach there Brynjar Gestsson was Icelandic, along with about 11 of my teammates,” he said.
“About three years after I got back to Australia he got in touch with me about the prospect of going to Iceland to play for him as he had just returned there and got himself a senior coaching job.
“I jumped at the chance, it was always a place I wanted to go after meeting these people and thought it was a great chance to one see old friends and also get to play football in a new environment.”
Having come through the VIS, and featuring in the VPL for the Bentleigh Greens in 2011, Kennedy’s move to Iceland was an experience into the uncharted as he ventured to a land known for its volcanoes and breathtaking scenery with the latter being one of the first impressions he had upon landing in the capital Reykjavik.
“My first impressions when I arrived in Iceland were how beautiful the scenery was. I arrived in May which was the start of summer and everything was starting to get green but there was still snow on the mountains.
“It was so different to anywhere I had lived before, it was amazing. When I arrived at the club the team had been training for months together already, but everyone was very welcoming. All the way from the board to the players it was a great environment to be around.
“The standard and amount of training was also better than I expected. We were training 4-5 times a week not including the game I really enjoyed that.”
He also notes the friendliness and warmth he received from the local population while also embracing the extended amount of daylight on offer in the summer.
“I really loved my time in Iceland as the lifestyle there is very relaxed. The people are so friendly and easy going it made it very easy to adapt to the lifestyle there. I think they have to be one of the friendliest nations in the world.
“It was also interesting adjusting to the daylight of the summer there which saw 22 hours of daylight a day. Some days after training we would go playing golf until midnight and it would still be daylight which was a very strange experience.”
While many football experts are struggling to work out how a country with a population of just over 330,000 and no professional league is through to the last eight of the Euros having sensationally knocked out England, Kennedy gained direct exposure to the enhanced systematic developments in Icelandic football that saw rapid improvements in its infrastructure and coaching standards and techniques.
“The way the sport is set up there is incredible, for such a small country to have five leagues and at the standard that they are in is a feat on its own. But then to see the progress they are making with facilities and coaching set ups is impressive.
“Almost every club has its own full sized artificial indoor pitch which allows clubs to train all year round regardless of weather conditions.
“With the season only being played in the summer from May to October, there was a lot of time of in-between seasons, but now they have a winter post-season cup that a lot of clubs use for trialling players for the up-coming season and then have a pre-season tournament that starts in February.
“They pretty much have constant football all year around with the coaching another area of great improvement. I’m pretty sure Iceland has one of the highest licensed coaches per capita rates in the world now with a lot more being put into youth development.
“We are now starting to see the benefits of this with Iceland producing a high number of quality players that play in many of Europe’s top leagues.”
While much of the country’s population is based in the capital Reykjavik, located in the south-west of the country and home to around 130,000 people, Kennedy was based in the nation’s east in Fjarðabyggð, a town with a population of just under 5,000 inhabitants.
Having grown up in a country town of similar size, Kennedy didn’t have much trouble adjusting and grew very fond of the Icelandic culture.
“It was very interesting living in such a small town, but being from a small town myself it wasn’t too much of a shock in that sense.
“With the season being in the summer there were a lot of people back in the town on the summer breaks from uni, work and so on and with it being such a small place, the team become like your family and I feel this was a good thing because I got to experience a lot more of the Icelandic culture.”
Away games primarily saw the second-division outfit flying out to the capital every fortnight as Kennedy got to see many of the country’s breath-taking sights while also living through the cold winters where temperatures dropped to -14 degrees celsius.
“I was lucky playing over there got me around all over the country so I got to experience and see a lot of Iceland.
“The cold was hard to get use to at first. The summer wasn’t too bad the hottest day I had there was actually 27 degrees. I stayed one winter and that was a shock as it got to as low as -14 with the amount of snow beyond imaginable for me.
“But after a while you acclimatise yourself and all of a sudden you are training in shorts, t-shirt and maybe a jacket on even in below zero temperatures.”
The former Dandenong Thunder and Fawkner Blues goalkeeper recently moved back to the Greens from the Shepparton-based Goulburn Valley Suns and admits he has been in contact with his former Icelandic teammates, with many of them making the journey to France to watch Lars Lagerback’s men in action.
The minnows still remain unbeaten in the competition and set to face the host country at the Stade de France tomorrow morning.
“I’ve been in constant contact with a lot of old teammates and friends during the Euros and have been keeping up with Iceland’s great run of form. A lot of people I know are in France and I’m getting constant Snapchats from them all and it looks amazing with the atmosphere and joy that the Icelandic fans being brilliant.
“This is their first major tournament and the whole country is getting behind them. The season is actually on at the moment in Iceland and I have had several ex-teammates telling me how they have been leaving for France after training one night to watch a game and staying there for one day and then getting back to for their own game on the weekend.
“I’ve also had friends that after the England game have taken the week off work and flown straight over and got tickets for the France game. The passion these people have for sport is so good and I really hope the fairy tale continues for them, it will be a huge feat though now they are up against one of the best teams in the tournament.”
Having already held their own against a Cristiano Ronaldo-frustrated Portugal and knocked England out of the tournament, the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson and co. will have to be at their best to give the host nation a similar fate come Monday morning.
Somewhere on the other side of the world, Kennedy will be glued to the TV in the early hours of the morning eagerly hoping the Boys journey into the tournament can continue on for a country which holds many happy memories for the boy from Cobram.
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