Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir

Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir
	Sara Björk in October 2017
Personal information
Full name	Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir
Date of birth	29 September 1990 (age 33)
Place of birth	Iceland
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Juventus
Number	77
Senior career*
Years	Team
2004–2008	Haukar
2008–2010	Breiðablik
2011–2016	FC Rosengård
2016–2020	VfL Wolfsburg
2020–2022	Olympique Lyonnais
2022–	Juventus
International career‡
2007	Iceland U-17
2007–2008	Iceland U-19
2007–2022	Iceland
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 17:21, 19 March 2023 (UTC); ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 18:12, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir (born 29 September 1990) is an Icelandic professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Italian Serie A club Juventus FC.

Sara Björk was part of the Iceland women's national football team from 2007 to 2022 and represented her country at the 2009, 2013 2017 and 2022 editions of the UEFA Women's Championship. She is the only woman to have been named the Icelandic Sportsperson of the Year twice, in 2018^[1] and 2020.^[2] In August 2020, she became the first Icelander to win the UEFA Women's Champions League.^[3]

Club career

Sara Björk joined local team Haukar at the age of six and remained until she was 18.

FC Malmö

After three subsequent seasons with Breiðablik, she left Iceland in 2011, to sign a three-year professional contract with Swedish club LdB FC Malmö.^[4] She was an immediate success in Sweden, contributing 12 goals as Malmö won the Damallsvenskan title.^[5] In August 2013 she announced the extension of her Malmö contract for another two and a half seasons via Twitter.^[6]

VfL Wolfsburg

In May 2016, Sara Björk announced that she would not extend her contract with Malmö (now known as FC Rosengård) and planned to leave Sweden after winning four Damallsvenskan titles in five years. At that stage she did not confirm speculation that she was heading for German club VfL Wolfsburg.^[7] Shortly afterwards the transfer to Wolfsburg was made official, ahead of their 2016–17 season.^[8] In her four seasons with Wolfsburg, the club won the Frauen-Bundesliga and the German Cup each year.^[9]

Olympique Lyonnais

On 1 July 2020, she joined Olympique Lyonnais.^[10] On 9 August, she won her first title with the club when it defeated Paris Saint-Germain in the Coupe de France after penalties.^[11] On 30 August, she scored one goal in Olympique Lyonnais' 3–1 win against her former club, Wolfsburg, in the UEFA Women's Champions League final.^[12]

In December 2020, Sara was named the Icelandic Sportsperson of the Year, becoming the first woman to win it twice.^[2] In April 2021, she announced that she was pregnant with her first child. She returned to the pitch in March 2022. In May the same year, she confirmed that she would leave Lyon at the end of the season.^[13]

Juventus FC

On 1 July 2022, Sara joined Juventus.^[14]

International career

Sara Björk was included in Iceland's senior national squad in August 2007, aged 16.^[15] She had recovered from an anterior cruciate ligament injury after having to delay surgery because she was too young and her bones were not yet fused.^[16]

Still a month short of her 17th birthday, she made her national team debut in a UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying match versus Slovenia in Dravograd. Sara Björk substituted in for Katrín Ómarsdóttir on 87 minutes.

Sara Björk scored twice in Iceland's 3–1 win over Norway at the 2009 Algarve Cup and was selected in the squad for the UEFA Women's Euro 2009 finals in Finland.^[17] She played in all three group matches as Iceland were eliminated in the first round.

Women's national team coach Siggi Eyjólfsson selected Sara Björk in the Iceland squad for UEFA Women's Euro 2013,^[18] where she played in all four matches including the 4–0 quarter-final defeat to hosts Sweden.

With Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir on maternity leave, incoming national coach Freyr Alexandersson appointed Sara Björk as Iceland's new team captain in 2014.^[19]

Sara Björk limped out of the 2018 UEFA Women's Champions League Final with an injury. She was ruled out of Iceland's match with Slovenia in June 2018, which was the first national team fixture she had missed since 2009.^[20]

On 13 January 2023, she announced her retirement from the Icelandic national team.^[21]

Personal life

Sara Björk is married to fellow footballer Árni Vilhjálmsson; the couple have a son together.^[22]

In January of 2023, Sara Björk wrote an article in the Player's Tribune publicizing Lyon's neglect of maternal care for her while she was pregnant and postpartum, including failure to properly pay her.^[23]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 11 March 2023^[24]^[25]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club	Season	League			National cup^[a]		League cup^[b]		Continental^[c]		Other		Total
Club	Season	Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Haukar	2004	Besta deild kvenna	0	0	0	0	3	0	—		—		3	0
	2007	Besta deild kvenna	0	0	1	0	11	13	—		—		12	13
	2008	Besta deild kvenna	0	0	0	0	8	5	—		—		8	5
	Total		0	0	1	0	22	18	—		—		23	18
Breiðablik	2008	Besta deild kvenna	6	4	1	1	—		—		—		7	5
	2009	Besta deild kvenna	17	7	3	0	0	0	—		—		20	7
	2010	Besta deild kvenna	18	6	1	0	0	0	5	3	—		24	9
	Total		41	17	5	1	0	0	5	3	—		51	21
FC Rosengård	2011	Damallsvenskan	21	12	2	0	—		6	5	1^[d]	0	30	17
	2012	Damallsvenskan	20	4	3	0	—		5	1	1^[e]	0	29	5
	2013	Damallsvenskan	20	8	2	1	—		4	1	—		26	10
	2014	Damallsvenskan	19	2	3	1	—		6	1	—		28	4
	2015	Damallsvenskan	21	7	1	0	—		6	2	1^[f]	0	29	9
	2016	Damallsvenskan	10	1	3	2	—		—		1^[g]	0	14	3
	Total		111	34	14	4	—		27	10	4	0	156	48
Vfl Wolfsburg	2016–17	Frauen-Bundesliga	17	1	4	0	—		6	1	—		27	2
	2017–18	Frauen-Bundesliga	19	4	4	2	—		9	6	—		32	12
	2018–19	Frauen-Bundesliga	16	2	4	2	—		5	0	—		25	4
	2019–20	Frauen-Bundesliga	16	5	3	1	—		3	1	—		22	7
	Total		68	12	15	5	—		23	8	—		106	25
Olympique Lyonnais	2019–20	D1 Féminine	—		—		—		3^[h]	1	—		3	1
	2020–21	D1 Féminine	12	3	1	0	—		4	0	—		17	3
	2021–22	D1 Féminine	5	0	0	0	—		1	0	—		6	0
	Total		17	3	1	0	—		8	1	—		26	4
Juventus	2022–23	Serie A	10	1	3	1	—		6	1	1	0	20	3
Career total			247	67	39	11	19	18	69	23	4	0	382	119

International

As of match played 12 October 2022^[26]

Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Iceland	2007	1	0
	2008	12	3
	2009	11	3
	2010	10	3
	2011	9	1
	2012	11	2
	2013	12	2
	2014	12	1
	2015	9	0
	2016	11	1
	2017	14	1
	2018	8	0
	2019	9	1
	2020	7	2
	2022	9	2
Total		145	22

Scores and results list Iceland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Gunnarsdóttir goal.

List of international goals scored by Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir
No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	7 March 2008	Municipal Stadium, Lagos, Portugal	Republic of Ireland	3–0	4–1	2008 Algarve Cup	^[27]
2	28 May 2008	Čika Dača Stadium, Kragujevac, Serbia	Serbia	2–0	4–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying	^[28]
3	26 June 2008	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Greece	1–0	7–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying	^[29]
4	4 March 2009	Estádio José Arcanjo, Olhão, Portugal	Norway	1–0	3–1	2009 Algarve Cup	^[30]
5	4 March 2009	Estádio José Arcanjo, Olhão, Portugal	Norway	2–1	3–1	2009 Algarve Cup	^[30]
6	17 September 2009	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Estonia	9–0	12–0	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	^[31]
7	19 June 2010	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Northern Ireland	1–0	2–0	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	^[32]
8	25 August 2010	Rakvere Linnastaadion, Rakvere, Estonia	Estonia	3–0	5–0	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	^[33]
9	25 August 2010	Rakvere Linnastaadion, Rakvere, Estonia	Estonia	5–0	5–0	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	^[33]
10	19 May 2011	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Bulgaria	2–0	6–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying	^[34]
11	21 June 2012	Lovech Stadium, Lovech, Bulgaria	Bulgaria	2–0	10–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying	^[35]
12	21 June 2012	Lovech Stadium, Lovech, Bulgaria	Bulgaria	10–0	10–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying	^[35]
13	13 March 2013	Bela Vista Municipal Stadium, Parchal, Portugal	Hungary	1–0	4–1	2013 Algarve Cup	^[36]
14	1 June 2013	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Scotland	1–2	2–3	Friendly	^[37]
15	13 September 2014	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Israel	3–0	3–0	2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	^[38]
16	7 June 2016	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	North Macedonia	4–0	8–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying	^[39]
17	18 September 2017	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Faroe Islands	4–0	8–0	2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	^[40]
18	4 March 2019	Bela Vista Municipal Stadium, Parchal, Portugal	Scotland	1–3	1–4	2019 Algarve Cup	^[41]
19	26 November 2020	NTC Senec, Senec, Slovakia	Slovakia	2–1	3–1	UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying	^[42]
20	26 November 2020	NTC Senec, Senec, Slovakia	Slovakia	3–1	3–1	UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying	^[42]
21	2 September 2022	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Belarus	1–0	6–0	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	^[43]
22	2 September 2022	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík, Iceland	Belarus	2–0	6–0	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	^[43]