Icelandic coach Halldór Jóhann Sigfússon was announced by the Bahrain Handball Federation (BHF) as their new men’s senior team coach last month, following the departure of Michael Roth who had only been in the role since August after succeeding previous coach Aron Kristjánsson.

Kristjánsson had made history for Bahrain, guiding the team to a Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualification – the first-ever Olympic qualification for Bahrain – and was set to coach at Tokyo 2020 this past summer.

With this in mind, he signed a contract to take over Icelandic club side Haukar following the Games, but due to the global handball calendar being affected by COVID-19 it was not possible to continue the dual commitment once Tokyo 2020 was rescheduled for 2021.

A former player and coach in Germany, Sigfússon is the third Icelandic coach in Bahrain in recent years, following Kristjánsson, and the legendary Gudmundur Gudmundsson. He will oversee the squad for their Egypt 2021 campaign on a short-term contract and then return to coach his Icelandic club side, Selfoss.

Sigfússon is not new to the Bahrain programme. He guided both the Bahrain men’s youth and junior teams to 17th place finishes at their respective IHF World Championship in 2019 and had worked closely with fellow Icelander Kristjánsson on the pathway progression of Bahraini players through the different age national teams.

The trained police officer has worked with a number of younger age Bahraini players with outstanding technical abilities including Ahmed Hussein, Abdullah Al-Zaimour, Ahmed Jalal, Abdullah Ali and Hassan Mirza, all of whom now have senior experience.

ihf.info spoke with Sigfússon about his new role, his Egypt 2021 expectations and the future of Bahrain handball.

ihf.info: How did Selfoss react when you asked if you could go and coach Bahrain for two months?

Sigfússon: When it came up, when Bahrain asked me, I spoke with the President of the club Thorir Haraldsson and the Selfoss board. I explained to them that this would be a great opportunity for me as a coach, that I would get great experience from Egypt 2021 and will come back with that experience, bring it into the team in Iceland and our academy. I will become a stronger coach.  

I am really thankful for them to be so supportive and so understanding because when you are club coach and take a national team for a championship normally it is just a one-month period, but this will be two months.

However, because of the pandemic, we have no handball activities in Iceland at the moment and that’s why it was possible. 

As you know because Michael Roth left after one month suddenly, Bahrain didn’t have so much time to prepare for Egypt 2021. So it was a win-win situation for me and also for them, just to take this tournament and take this project and I'm really happy that they gave me this opportunity.

ihf.info: How is the COVID-19 situation in Bahrain?

Sigfússon: Like Iceland, you do the test on arrival at the airport, but then it's different. Here, when you get results you are free to join the community, but you need to do another test in 10 days.

It's actually a better situation than in Europe or the US, it's rather stable here. They have done over two million tests here, but they are only a country of around 1.5 million inhabitants, so they are really testing everyone, and you cannot go into the country without taking a test. They're really controlling it. 

It's similar here to Iceland in many ways. Iceland, like Bahrain is also an island. In Iceland, we test everyone at the border – we are doing a lot of tests. Because we are so few [people) it's easy to test. For example, Reykjavik, has about two thirds of our inhabitants, so it’s easy to control it. 

In terms of handball, the problem in Iceland that we have now in the last two months there hasn’t been any sporting activity. They closed everything. That's why it was so easy for me to come here to Bahrain and work for the Bahrain Handball Federation for these two months.

ihf.info: What are your expectations for Egypt 2021?

Sigfússon: It's a good opportunity and it would be a fantastic result for us to be second in the group. 

Argentina are a very strong team with a very strong, very good and very experienced coach who is getting them to play this Spanish-style of handball.

DR Congo, we don't know anything about at the moment, I'm getting videos of them. Denmark, of course, are the world champions so that is a huge assignment for us and one we are very looking forward to. 

Because we are allowed to have 20 players in the squad this time, we will try to have more younger players in the group – it gives us the opportunity now.

ihf.info: Back in 2017, in Georgia, Bahrain beat Denmark in the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, so it is possible to beat them. And with your Icelandic background maybe it inspires you to want to beat them more? How do you beat the world champions?

Sigfússon: As an Icelander, I always want to beat Denmark, that’s for sure. But if you want to beat Denmark, you need to play at your best standard, and they have to play not their best game. You also need to have a good, disciplined defence; goalkeepers making saves.

It’s so many things that need to come together and a whole lot of luck also.

We see that first game in the tournament as an opportunity to have a good game and go into the next games with confidence. It's really important to start the tournament well. 

It’s a huge stage, but we have experience as a team. It's not much time for me to prepare the team now but I know the system that they've been playing for the last few years with the good results and we'll keep to that.

I will put ‘my’ signature on the team in some ways, but in the bigger picture, we will try to use the positive things that we had been doing in those last few years with the team.

ihf.info: Even though you are the new coach for the senior team, you have some continuity on the coaching bench?

Sigfússon: Yes. Ahmed Mansour was my assistant coach in North Macedonia [2019], he will be with me at Egypt 2021. He also took care of the goalkeepers with me and I know him very well. It's important for me when I come this time that I know my assistant coach. 

Also, Ahmed Alnajem the team manager, has been helping for many years and I know him also. We also have a physiotherapist from Egypt who was with the team in their preparation matches against Egypt in October. The players have spoken highly about him and also our Slovenian fitness coach who is joining us now and also worked with the group in October.

This continuity is important as it means that I can just focus on the tactical things and preparing the team for the games. 

It’s always a problem here in Bahrain and similar countries that we need to improve the physical condition of the players, and in such a limited preparation time it's difficult, but we need to be fit for a tournament like the world championship because you are playing every second day.

ihf.info: It seems, despite the coaching changes, the team and the federation are quite stable for you?

Sigfússon: We have had stability in the federation now for quite a long time. Ali (Mohamed Isa Eshaqi) has been the BHF President for many years and Ismail (Eatmadi) has been the manager of the national teams for many years, from, I think, 2011. 

They have also worked with Aron, and Gudmundur who started this tactical concept that we have been playing, plus I have worked with Aron and the teams previously.

ihf.info: Can you compare Iceland and Bahrain handball in any way?

Sigfússon: The clubs here in Bahrain can do much better and they need to bring handball to the next level. They see us in Iceland as a model. They see how we have been doing in world handball, and how, for a small nation, we are strong.

In Iceland we also play in an amateur league, but we have a great lot of players who are going abroad to play in Europe at the highest level because we have very strong youth training and good coaches.

We licence the coaches and they attend seminars in Iceland and Europe. We have around 25 EHF Master Coaches in Iceland, it's really a lot. 

I have great support here in Bahrain to do my work and I am grateful for that. It allows me to focus on how we want to do things. I have nothing to complain about.

ihf.info: You coached both the Bahrain junior and youth teams at the IHF Men’s World Championships in Spain and North Macedonia last year. How many players have transitioned through from those teams to this provisional, expanded, Bahrain squad for Egypt 2021 and who are you excited about? In the past you have spoken about Ahmed Hussein, Abdullah Al-Zaimour, Ahmed Jalal, Abdullah Ali and Hassan Mirza.

Sigfússon: In the total squad for Egypt 2021 we have of around 23 players, and I think about seven players have come from the younger age sides I coached.

We have three players who played U19 (youth) one year ago; the goalkeeper Husain Mahfood, right wing Qasim Qambar and right wing Mohamed Mohamed Habib, who finished as the second top goalscorer in North Macedonia. Habib is a great prospect for the future of Bahrain handball and he’s only 19 years old. Those three also played in the U21 (junior) team last year.

The guys who are playing for the Bahrain national team now for the past years are getting older. Most of most of them are over 30 now. Of course, 30,32 is a great age in handball, but we – Bahrain handball – need to look into the future and develop these younger players to be better.

That is was what the Bahrain Handball Federation wanted to do with having a coach here, taking care of the players maybe three times a week in the mornings, with individual training and stuff like that. Then we can have longer periods with the national team in between and when the league stops, just to tell develop the players. 

Unfortunately, Aron couldn’t do that because he had his job with Haukar and that’s why Michael Roth came in. He was originally planned to come in and do the work for 13 months, up to the AHF Men’s Asian Championship in 2022, but now I will do my job for these two months and then we’ll speak again and see.

It's a good, good place to work in: you have the players to work with and the younger ones too, it's interesting.

ihf.info: How important is Egypt 2021 for you in terms of preparing Bahrain for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games?

Sigfússon: We want to do as well as we can in every tournament, that's for sure, but Tokyo is a huge event for Bahrain handball, Bahrain sports and Bahrain itself because it’s the first time a Bahrain team will be at an Olympic Games. It's a huge project for the team and the Bahrain Handball Federation.
    
We know that some of our players are getting older and we need younger players to come inside [the squad] and we need to give them experience, minutes (on court). For us, we see this world championship as a great event for them to get that experience.

ihf.info: You follow in a line of Icelandic coaches in Bahrain. Did you speak to Aron and Gudmundur before you took this role, and do you continue to speak to them?

Sigfússon: I spoke with both of them before I took this job. I speak with Aron about the team too, he was asking me about the players, how everything is in Bahrain now. He is interested, and he’s looking forward for me taking this assignment – we worked together as a team here before and know each other very well. 

As most people will know, we have Icelandic coaches all around the world. We have Alfred Gislason as the German (men’s) coach, Gudmundur with the Icelandic (men’s) team, Dagur Sigurdsson as the Japan (men’s) coach.

For a small nation such as Iceland in world handball it’s a great honour for our standard of handball that we have coaches all around and we can deliver our knowledge, the system and everything else we stand for.