Hermann Gunnarsson

Hermann Gunnarsson (9 December 1946 – 4 June 2013) commonly referred to by his nickname, Hemmi Gunn, was an Icelandic television and radio personality, performer and former football and handball player at an international level. Hermann is known as one of Iceland's greats both in football and handball. He also played basketball at club level (with Valur, as in football and handball), but never played a national game in that sport.

Media personality

Hermann is also famous for hosting the top-rated talk show Á tali hjá Hemma Gunn on the public TV channel Sjónvarpið for many years in the 1980s and 1990s. The show still remains one of the highest rated shows in Icelandic television history. In fall 2006 he started a new weekly talk show on Stöð 2. Hermann has also released musical albums, hosted a radio show on Bylgjan among other activities. He spent some years in Thailand during his break from the media. He played 14 official matches, scoring 4 goals, 4 matches against amateur sides, scoring 2 goals and 2 games against the Spanish amateur team in an Olympic qualifier, not scoring in those matches.

Hermann played with Víkingur R. until he was 10 years old, when he switched to Valur. One summer he scored 62 goals in 15 games for their youth team. He returned home after 6 months, refusing offers from Austria and West Germany. In total Hermann scored 95 times in the Úrvalsdeild, 81 times with Valur and 14 times with ÍBA.

Hermann was top scorer of the Úrvalsdeild three times, in 1967 with Valur (12 goals in a season with 10 matches), in 1970 with ÍBA (14 goals in a season with 14 matches) and in 1973 with Valur (17 goals in 13 matches).

In 1970 he was the player-manager of ÍBA, 23 years old, the youngest manager in the history of the Úrvalsdeild. He played his first official senior team game on 24 January 1971, scoring 4 points.