Ívar Ingimarsson

Ívar Ingimarsson

Personal information
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Position(s)	defender
Team information
Current team	Reading
Number	16
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 15:24, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Ívar Ingimarsson (born 20 August 1977 in Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland), is a professional footballer currently playing for Reading in central defence.

Club career

Early years

Ingimarsson began his career with his local side Súlan (in Stöðvarfjörður), then joined Valur Reykjavík, making 45 league appearances and scoring five goals. In August 1998, he signed for fellow Icelandic side ÍBV Vestmann, making a further 35 appearances in the Icelandic league, and scoring five goals.

Ingimarsson joined Torquay United on loan from IBV in October 1999, scoring on his debut in a 2-1 victory at league leaders Barnet on 23 October 1999. Rumours were rife that a deal had already been done to take Ingimarsson elsewhere at the end of his loan spell, and, after four league games for the Gulls, he duly signed for Brentford in November 1999 for £200,000, confirming the fears of Torquay fans that he would never be a permanent fixture at Plainmoor.

While at Brentford, the band The Bluetones named one of their instrumental B-sides Ingimarsson in his honour; Adam Devlin, the guitarist, being a Bees fan. He was released by Brentford in June 2002, the Bees unable to pay his wages. He signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers the following month, but was unable to establish himself at Molineux, resulting in a loan spell with Brighton & Hove Albion in February 2003.

Reading

In October 2003, Ingimarsson was linked with a move to Crystal Palace, but snubbed them in favour of a move to Reading, whom he joined in a £175,000 deal on 23 October 2003 as Steve Coppell's first signing as Reading manager.

At Reading, he holds a key place in the first team playing alongside Ibrahima Sonko. Together they formed one of the best defenses in the English Football League. On occasions he comes up with the odd goal and has proved vital in some games. He helped Reading to promotion to the Premier League in 2006 and played in Reading's first ever game in the top flight of English League football, a 3-2 win at home against Middlesbrough on 19 August 2006. On 13 November 2006, Ingimarsson signed a contract extension to keep him at Reading until June 2009, and on 5 May 2007 it was announced that he had been voted the 2006–07 Player of the Season by the Reading fans.

On 4 July 2007, Ingimarsson signed an improved three year contract to keep him at Reading until the end of the 2009–10 season.

International career

He made his debut for Iceland in a June 1998 friendly match against South Africa. He opted to retire from international football for a period of just under two years because of arguments with the former joint-managers Ásgeir Sigurvinsson and Logi Ólafsson. He became available again once the pair were replaced by Eyjólfur Sverrisson, and made several further appearances before retiring again in 2007.

External links

• Ívar Ingimarsson profile at readingfc.co.uk
• Ívar Ingimarsson at Soccerbase