A Career of Two Halves - Dentist becomes Football Manager
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- Published: Thursday, 21 September 2023 09:10
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Dentists and football. There are the sofa experts. Those that kick about in the park with their children. The five a siders. The Sunday league players. And then there is Heimir Hallgrimsson.
He currently coaches a national team, and it is not the first time that he has had that role.
He began playing for a local team in his Icelandic home town of Vestmannaeyjar in 1986, throughout his playing career working as a dentist in his village. Starting as assistant coach, he took over the Icelandic national team after the 2016 Euros, his tenure including their 2018 World Cup run.
After a period managing a Qatari team he was appointed in late 2022 to another national squad.
In a dramatic contrast to the climate from his first period of national level management, he now coaches the Jamaican team, better known as the Reggae Boyz.
His ambition now is to get his team to the next World Cup in 2026. Given the lack of job security in football management he knows that if things do not go well he can return to his clinic on Heimaey, which he established 30 years ago, and full time dentistry. He has said that he “likes to keep his fingers working” and before his international work, had gone to the clinic as much as he could in his spare time, “some coaches go and play golf, I do dentistry.”
A recent pun filled story about him in The Sun, headlined “Get His Fill”, also managed to include, “cutting his teeth in management,” as well as a tenuous link between the wisdom of a coach and removal of wisdom teeth.
It described Hallgrimmsson having to switch roles while watching a game from the stands in the summer of 2016. He had been watching a local game when one of the players was knocked out and a tooth avulsed. He went onto the pitch while the player was unconscious and put her tooth back in place, then continued the treatment at a nearby surgery.
At first sight football management and dentistry might seem like two very different careers, but Hallgrimmsson sees similarities, saying: "Working as a dentist has helped me a lot as you’re always working one-on-one. Some people are really afraid of going to the dentist, so you have to find the right way to talk to each individual client.
"You might have to relax one, be funny to the next one, be serious to the third, but you have to be quick to adapt. It is the same with footballers."
Image Copyright Sun News
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