REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The 35-year-old hotel manager in her Viking helmet with the upturned horns and the Iceland flag painted intricately across her forehead has a best friend whose sister’s boyfriend is best friends with a defender on the Iceland national soccer team. The 35-year-old fan and aluminum smelter wearing an Iceland flag as a cape and walking the rowdy side of the stadium during a recent friendly against Norway played soccer with one of the midfielders from ages 10 to 14, then went to school with him from ages 16 to 20.
The 35-year-old fan outside the stadium before the friendly doesn’t really know any players, but wait, he knows the team’s manager, Heimir Hallgrimsson, having served as the physiotherapist for the club that Hallgrimsson managed on Vestmannaeyjar island, and also because his wife is a dentist who happened to practice alongside Hallgrimsson, who is also, yes, a dentist.