MOST lower level footballers’ first thoughts when told there was an offer from Iceland would revolve around words like “cheap”, “party food” and “Kerry Katona” and not necessarily in that order.
When he received a text from his agent last May, a few days after finishing his second season at Tamworth, Danny Thomas’ reaction was pretty much the same.
“Because we’ve got the Premier League, we’re pretty ignorant of what football there is in other countries,” says the 31-year-old left-sider, who has spent the past three seasons in the Blue Square Bet Premier with Kettering and the Lambs.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all. I was just relaxing at home one evening and my agent messaged saying a Premier League team from Iceland wanted me to go over for a medical.
“I replied saying ‘Are you sure you don’t mean a trial? I’ve had it before when you have to go and train for a week or two to prove you’re a better player than what is already there.
“But he said that a club called FH had looked at my CV, seen videos of me on YouTube and wanted me out there in a couple of days for their summer season, which included the Europa League.
“I was like, ‘Wow this is a big opportunity’, because I wasn’t aware of any other interest and like a thousand other footballers in this country, I was out of contract and wondering what lay ahead.”
Leaving his young family behind would be tough, but the need to put food on the table? made it a no-brainer, and off the ex-Leicester City, Bournemouth, Boston United, Shrewsbury, Hereford and Macclesfield winger flew to Hafnarfjaroar, a fishing town 15 minutes from the capital, Reykjavic.
And at the end of a five-month season with the club Thomas describes as “probably the best of my career”?, he returned with more than a few frozen canapes for wife Tina and three-year-old daughter Ava-Rae.
“I’ve got a championship winner’s medal, meaning we qualified for next year’s Champions League, and played in Europe, which I’d have never got to have experienced as a player in this country,”? says Thomas.
Amazing
“Some lads who spend their entire career in the Premier League and Championship don’t get to play Europa League football.
“Because the club had finished in the top three regularly, all the other players were used to it. They were asking me if it was my first time, and I was proper excited. We played the top team in Liechtenstein, then went to Sweden, where we got knocked out in the second round by AIK.
“But the stadium was amazing, and in some ways I was asking myself, ‘Am I really here?’ For me, coming from the Conference, to going and playing in Europe couldn’t believe it.”
With the club providing him a car and apartment, Thomas had to get used to training in the evening with most of the FH players combining jobs with full-time football.
“It’s different over there, because most of the players go to America to get a degree when they’re young, then return to Iceland and start their jobs. If they are good enough to be picked up by a club, they train every day as well at five or six o’clock.
“We had a maths teacher, a journalist and the right-back, Jon Jonsson, is more famous over there as a pop star than a footballer.
“The standard was high, ex-Chelsea and Barcelona forward Eidur Gudjohnsen trained with us a few times, and all the players had been brought up on a passing game. I was apprehensive about the language factor before I went, but they all spoke great English. The quiet dressing room took some getting used to, though.
“Because it was the Premier League and FH were a top club, all the talk in the media was about us and the spotlight was quite intense.
“But the club was so relaxed. Before a game I never saw anyone tense. I saw people lying on the floor, listening to their music.
Chilling
“It was always quiet and people were chilling. There was a bit more riding on the Europa League games, but it was nothing like the dressing rooms I’m used to over here.”
As someone who spent two seasons playing for Steve Evans at Boston, including a spell sitting next to Paul Gascoigne in the York Street dressing room in 2004, that’s probably the understatement of the year.
The other useful thing Thomas brought home with him was a new position. “Because I’ve always been a winger, my mates joke that I never tackle, can’t head and can’t defend. But I found left-back quite easy and I really enjoyed it. I feel it’s educated me and I’ve added a lot to my game, even at 31.”
Despite the on-pitch joy, returning to his family in Coventry last Monday meant much more. “I loved it and I’m so glad I went, but the most difficult thing was speaking to my little girl on Skype and hearing her say missed me,” he says.
Now the difficult football part and something he expected to be doing over the summer, finding a new club.
“I’ve played week-in, week-out since last August, says the man who made 41 appearances for Tamworth in 2011-12.
“Maybe I need a bit of a break mentally and physically, but I don’t know how much rest I’m going to get with a three-year-old who’s as lively as hell. I feel fit and ready to carry on what’s already been a 14-month season!”
