Guðlaugur Victor Pálsson

Guðlaugur Victor Pálsson left Iceland as a teenager, moving through Fjölnir and Fylkir before a stint at AGF Aarhus took him to Liverpool in 2009 for a reported fee of £300,000. English football never gave him a settled run: he went out on loan to Dagenham & Redbridge, then crossed to Scotland with Hibernian before a move to Major League Soccer with New York Red Bulls in 2012. A loan at NEC Nijmegen turned into a permanent deal that December, and he stayed in the Netherlands long enough to win the Eerste Divisie title with the club in the 2014–15 season.

From there his career became a tour of European leagues: Helsingborgs IF and Esbjerg fB, then FC Zürich, where he added a Swiss Cup winner's medal in 2017–18. Pálsson has represented Iceland at senior level since his debut in 2014, with his cap total put at 56 by RSSSF, five of them accompanied by a goal, though other sources give a lower figure.

His move to Germany brought both success and setback. At Darmstadt 98 he lost his mother in 2020, a period he later described as tumultuous for his mental health. He nevertheless earned a transfer to Schalke 04 in 2021 for around €700,000 and won the 2. Liga title with the club that season, despite being sent off in a match against SC Freiburg. Injury also disrupted his international involvement, with a foot problem ruling him out of national team matches. After Schalke, he continued moving between leagues with spells at D.C. United, Eupen and Plymouth Argyle.