Stjarnan Women

Garðabær sits just south of Reykjavík. Stjarnan is that name in handball as much as in football.

The club grew out of a 1960 foundation. Valur remained the team Stjarnan had to get past, in the league and in the cup alike, and the rivalry shows in the ledger: eight Icelandic Cup wins sit alongside a longer list of final defeats, most recently in 2024.

Hanna Guðrún Stefánsdóttir carried that era into its later years, arriving in 2010 with the kind of reputation few Icelandic players match and finishing her international career with 142 caps. Rakel Dögg Bragadóttir took a different path through the club, captaining the national team before returning to coach the side she had once played for.

Home matches are now played in Miðgarður, an 800-seat hall that opened in 2022 and replaced Tímahöllin as the team's base. It is a modern venue for a club whose best years came in an older one, and it gives Stjarnan a ground to match ambitions that faded somewhat after 2009 — the league title has not returned since, and the cup final defeat to Valur in 2024 was another reminder that catching up to the old rival is no longer automatic.