Aron Kristjánsson has been appointed as the new coach of the Kuwait men’s senior national team, extending his stint in the Gulf, after having previously led the Bahrain men’s senior national team.

The ambitious Kuwait side was led by Said Hadjazi at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, when they marked their return to the world handball flagship competition for the first time since 2009.

The Asian team finished on the 27th place in the final standings, conceding losses against France, Qatar and Austria in the preliminary round, but finished second in the President’s Cup group, with wins over Algeria and Guinea and a loss against Poland.

In the Placement Match 27/28, Kuwait beat fellow Asian side Japan, 37:32, to finish 27th, as they now aim for a better performance in continental and international competitions.

Kristjánsson, a former centre back, who represented Iceland as a player between 1993 and 2003, featuring 85 times and scoring 128 goals for the European team, has moved into coaching in 2004, spending three years at former club Skjern Håndbold.

He went back to Iceland, where he spent three more years at Haukar, before coaching one year in the German Bundesliga, at TSV Hannover-Burgdorf. After another two-year stint at Haukar, Kristjánsson spent four years as the Iceland men’s national team head coach.

Between 2014 and 2017, he also coached in Denmark, at KIF Kolding and Aalborg Handbold. Since 2018, he was the coach of the Bahrain men’s senior national team, securing the best performance ever in the history of the Asian side, qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

There, Bahrain made it to the quarter-finals, finishing on the eighth place in the final standings. With Kristjánsson at the helm, Bahrain also finished on the podium at the 2022 AHF Asian Men’s Handball Championship, where Kristjánsson’s team finished second, and at the 2024 AHF Asian Men’s Handball Championship, when Bahrain finished third, taking a 26:17 win over Kuwait in the bronze medal match.

Kristjánsson will make his debut at the Arab Cup in May, also eyeing a medal for Kuwait at the 2026 AHF Men’s Handball Championship, scheduled for January 2026 in Japan.

Kuwait have won the continental title four times, most recently in 2006, and their last medal at the AHF Asian Men’s Handball Championship was in 2008, when they secured the silver.