Ari Freyr Skúlason

International career

After being capped at various youth levels he got to make his debut for the Icelandic national team in 2009 against Iran. In 2012, he started getting more frequent callups from new national team manager Lars Lagerbäck. Despite Ari having been playing as a midfielder for his club side he was nonetheless picked in the Iceland squad as a left-back and has been the first-choice left-back in the national team during most of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Consequently, Ari felt that he needed to change his position at club level and asked to be signed as a left-back when he was sold in July 2013, so he could play that position at club level to be able to hold his place as the first-choice left-back in the Iceland squad, despite the fact that he has been praised as a central playmaker of high quality. He started in all of Iceland's five matches, helping the national team go to the quarter-finals in their very first European championship.

In May 2018 he was named in Iceland's 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Ari retired from the national team in November 2021. He played 83 games.

Playing position Even though his most common position is in central midfield Ari can also play as a winger and played as a full-back with the Iceland national team. After transferring from Sweden to Denmark in 2013 he stated in an interview that he had asked to be signed as a left-back to cement his place as the starting left-back in the national team.