Iceland's fairytale journey heading for World Cup in Russia

Leading the march of the unheralded teams at the 2016 European Championship, Iceland provided a warm, feel-good story that few believed would last beyond those four glorious weeks in France.

The smallest nation — totaling around 330,000 inhabitants — ever to qualify for the tournament had reached the quarterfinals, famously bloodying the nose of England along the way. Their fans' "thunderclap" war chant became the soundtrack of that summer and would soon spread through the continent.

Iceland's captain Aron Gunnarsson celebrates at the end of the World Cup Group I qualifying soccer match between Iceland and Kosovo in Reykjavik, Iceland, Monday Oct. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gunnarsson).

How could Iceland's national team ever top that?

It turns out that was just the start of this soccer fairytale, not the end.

On Monday, Iceland's players went a step further by qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, ensuring the Nordic country's presence on the sport's grandest stage for the first time. A 2-0 win over Kosovo in Reykjavik prompted wild celebrations that spilled into the city center.

Hours after the game, the team took to a stage at Ingolfstorg Square in downtown Reykjavik in front of around 5,000 cheering fans. The players — led by bearded captain Aron Gunnarsson — danced and, of course, performed one more rendition of the thunderclap to the backdrop of a beating drum.

"Some people consider this the biggest single event in the history of Icelandic sport," Klara Bjartmarz, general secretary of the Icelandic Football Association, told The Associated Press.

Iceland's fans celebrate their team's victory against Kosovo, following the World Cup Group I qualifying soccer match between Iceland and Kosovo in Reykjavik, Iceland, Monday Oct. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gunnarsson).

In 2006, Trinidad and Tobago — with a population of 1.3 million — became the least-populous nation to play at a World Cup. Twelve years on, Iceland will dwarf that figure.

Much like Leicester gave the sporting underdog hope by winning the English Premier League in 2016 at preseason odds of 5,000-1, Iceland's improbable rise in international soccer is making other smaller nations dream.

Iceland is "a great example for small nations like our own," said Albert Bunjaki, the coach of a Kosovo team that was embarking on its first qualifying campaign as a member of world soccer's governing body, FIFA.

Iceland coach Heimar Hallgrimsson was struggling to come to terms with the achievement.

"The mind is all over the place," said Hallgrimsson, who combines managing his country's national team with running a dental surgery in a small town in Iceland.

"I mean... Pele, Maradona and Aron Einar Gunnarsson!"

Iceland's players, Aron Einar Gunnarsson, left and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson celebrate their team's victory against Kosovo, following the World Cup Group I qualifying soccer match between Iceland and Kosovo in Reykjavik, Iceland, Monday Oct. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gunnarsson).

Hallgrimsson was the assistant to head coach Lars Lagerback at Euro 2016, and was promoted ahead of the World Cup qualifying campaign when Lagerback stood down. A modest and well-respected coach in Iceland, Hallgrimsson has managed to keep motivational levels high within the squad after the Euros.

He has also stuck to his own unique approach. Before the qualifier against Kosovo, like with every Iceland home game, Hallgrimsson met up with a supporters' group in a Reykjavik bar and disclosed the team's starting lineup and tactics. The fans, it appears, are as big a part of this journey as Iceland's players.

The Icelandic FA is set to benefit to the tune of at least $9million for getting to the World Cup. This comes after it earned 14 million euros from the team's run at Euro 2016, a windfall that Bjartmarz said was partly shared with Iceland's clubs while some funds were kept "for more difficult years."

The federation is pushing for a new national stadium to be built in Reykjavik, while money will continue to be ploughed into coach education and better training facilities for clubs.

"We knew we had the moment with us after the European Championship, so that was something we tried to build on," Bjartmarz said in a phone interview.

"But we haven't changed anything, just continued with what we believe in."

At the last count — in 2015 — Iceland had 22,000 registered soccer players, men and women. Although Bjartmarz is "quite sure" that number will have increased after the Euros, it still sums up the size of Iceland's achievement over the past few years — starting with reaching the European playoffs for the 2014 World Cup, where the team lost to Croatia.

Fittingly, Iceland beat Croatia to top spot in Group I four years on. Ukraine and Turkey were also swept aside. Iceland is currently 22nd in the FIFA rankings, punching far above its weight.

So, Hallgrimsson's well-organized, hard-working team and its loyal fanbase heads to Russia. Who knows what's next in this enchanting voyage.

"This success is not an end in itself," Hallgrimsson said in quotes carried by FIFA.com, "it is the beginning of a long journey towards the final destination."

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A high-level North Korean economic delegation was on its way to Iran, the North's state media said Wednesday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Embracing the idea of a “new Cold War,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pushing to build up cooperation with countries confronting the United States, as his intensified weapons tests prompted the U.S. and South Korea to expand their military drills.

Pyongyang's delegation led by Yun Jung Ho, North Korea’s minster of external economic relations, flew out Tuesday for the trip to Iran, official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. State media did not immediately provide further details.

Pyongyang and Tehran are among the few governments in the world that support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and both have been accused of providing Russia with military equipment.

The last known time North Korea sent senior officials to Iran was in August 2019, when a group led by Pak Chol Min, vice chair of Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, made a weeklong visit. The two countries had active diplomatic exchanges until North Korea sealed its borders in an effort to stave off the pandemic, before a cautious reopening in 2023.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with the North, did not immediately comment Yun’s visit to Iran.

North Korea has made efforts for months to boost the visibility of its ties with Russia and China as Kim attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front against the U.S.

In 2023, Kim visited Russia’s Far East for a rare summit with Putin, which highlighted the countries’ expanding military cooperation, including the North’s alleged transfers of artillery shells, missiles, and other munitions to Russia.

Earlier this month, Kim hosted top Chinese official Zhao Leji, who heads the ceremonial parliament and ranks third in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy. It was the highest-level meeting between the countries in years.

On Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s powerful sister, slammed the latest rounds of U.S.-South Korean joint military drills and insisted that the allies will never break the North’s determination to build up “our overwhelming and most powerful military muscle.”

The statement comes a week after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called for the international community to be alert to the possibility of military cooperation between North Korea, Iran and Russia. Iran has been accused of providing drones to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine.

“We are concerned about … the Iranians providing weapons to the Russians and the Russians also supporting efforts to help (North Korea) expand their own research into developing weapons. And certainly, that would be the case with Iran as well,” she said.

FILE - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the American Diplomacy House in Seoul, on April 17, 2024. A high-level North Korean economic delegation is traveling to Iran for what would be the two countries’ first talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the heavily sanctioned nations align in face of their separate confrontations with the United States. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019. A high-level North Korean economic delegation is traveling to Iran for what would be the two countries’ first talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the heavily sanctioned nations align in face of their separate confrontations with the United States. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, meets Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress of China, in Pyongyang, North Korea on April 13, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)