Albert Gudmundsson clarifies his future in an interview with the English newspaper Telegraph: «I want to test myself at a high level. I feel good at Genoa, I’m under contract and I want to see how the season ends, but obviously as a player and in love with football I have always dreamed of playing at the highest levels. It’s my ambition. Ever since I was a child I’ve always thought about playing in the Premier League, it’s something I want to try to do.”
The surname Gudmundsson, family of footballers, is historically associated with football: «My mother’s grandfather Kristbjorg Ingadottir was the first Icelander to play in the Premier League and the second foreigner in the history of Arsenal (he played half-forward at Highbury when football was still amateur, ed). I never met him, but my mother told me many stories about him, after the end of his career they even wrote a book. She inspired me to reach a high professional level.” Young Albert could only breathe football: «I was born to be a footballer. In summer, in Iceland the sun doesn’t set so you play all day: I remember my mum picking me up from camp at 10 or 11 at night to take me home and put me to bed. On TV I only watched English or Italian football.”
Gudmundsson retraces the stages of his career, starting with some trials at Arsenal: «The director of the football academy Gunners it was Liam Brady, he treated me with a lot of attention. I tried a couple of times at Liverpool, but together with my dad we decided to go to Holland because in England the path from youth to the first team can be very long. At PSV I had big names as assistant coaches: Ruud van Nistelrooy, Mark van Bommel, Boudewijn Zenden. At AZ, however, I had Arne Slot (directed to Liverpool after Klopp, ed) and I always thought he would become a top coach: I wasn’t always a starter with him, but he is a coach who knows how to prepare matches tactically and mentally well during the week.”
Then the transfer at the end of January 2022 to Genoa, a club that Albert did not know: «I didn’t have much time to research the coach (Blessin, ed) and about the club, so I used Google an hour before the plane flight. I said to myself, “Fuck it, let’s go.” The good performances in Serie B have given me confidence for this season, so far I have given my best: I knew I had the qualities – good finishing, final pass and free kicks – finally now I feel like I have shown them. I don’t know what this is due to, perhaps age, maturation or the fact that he knows the Italian championship better.”
