World Cup 2018: Iceland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson reveals he HATES iconic thunderclap… and that he still works as dentist
Hallgrimsson amazingly admits he hopes their epic war chant does not catch on in Russia
IT was the soundtrack of the summer at Euro 2016.
But Iceland boss Heimir Hallgrímsson has revealed he now HATES the iconic thunderclap.
The Nordic nation’s post-match celebrations became famous in France, with players joining the crowd in simultaneously clapping their hands above their head and shouting, ‘Huh!’.
Yet Hallgrimsson amazingly admits he hopes their epic war chant does not catch on in Russia.
Ahead of Saturday's Group D opener against Argentina, he told SunSport: “At the moment I hate it. It’s a little bit overused.
“It was nice, it was a moment, but now every time you walk down the street, on the other side, they start clapping, especially foreigners.
“It was ours, even though it’s stolen from Scotland - but now it’s kind of global, so we have to find something new.”
On the pitch, at least, Hallgrimsson will hope nothing changes from two years ago, when Iceland remarkably reached the quarter-finals.
Having shared managerial duties with Lars Lagerbeck at the Euros, he has led his country to their first World Cup on his own.
Yet in between plotting plans for their Group D opponents, Hallgrimsson still finds some time to swap his tracksuit for scrubs and do his other job as a DENTIST.
He said: “I still have my clinic and I like to keep my fingers working.
“So I try to go there as much as I can in my spare time and do some dentistry.
“Some coaches go and play golf, I do dentistry.
“The reality of a football coach, you never know when you are out of a job so it’s good to have another profession to jump into.
“The clients love it, and I love it too.
“They talk about football until I’m fed up… and then I give them anaesthesia!”
The dentist’s chair might seem a world away from the dugout.
But Hallgrimsson, who has had his clinic for 24 years and worked there when he was a player, recently found his skills came in handy at a match.
He explained: “I was watching a local women’s game last summer when one of the players got knocked out and her tooth came out.
“So I jumped on the pitch and put the tooth back in, took her to a dental office and fixed it.
“That kind of thing can happen.”
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Anything, it seems, can happen to Hallgrimsson and Iceland, who are the smallest country to ever qualify for the World Cup.
And England fans know that better than most, with Roy Hodgson’s side memorably losing 2-1 to them in the last-16 in France.
Hallgrimsson admitted: “Sometimes you feel it is going to be your day and I think that was our feeling.
“I think it was even tougher for the English team that we came back so quickly and went ahead after going behind.
“We had a plan. We had to defend well and be really organised and we tried to close down their threats.
“We thought we could hurt them in set pieces and we did.”
England boss Hodgson resigned immediately after the match.
And Hallgrimsson added: “I really felt for him, both because he is a friend of Lars and because he is a nice guy.
“We saw that it hurt and we know that the media in England can be really tough on coaches.
“We didn’t have a drink with him after the match because we knew it was always going to be tough for him.
“But I’m really happy that he is doing well again now.”
The earliest Iceland, who lost 5-2 to hosts France in the next round of the Euros, could meet England in Russia this summer is the semi-finals.
But Hallgrimsson’s first goal is to get out of a group containing Argentina, Nigeria and Croatia.
He added: “If we do that, which is going to be a hell of a task, it really doesn’t matter which teams come after that because they are not going to be any better than Argentina or Croatia.
“Icelanders are really optimistic. But a favourite sentence of ours in the last two or three years is, ‘Success is not the destination’.
“Success is a continuous journey to the right direction.
“Icelandic football does not stand and fall with Russia this summer.”
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