Ari Freyr Skúlason

Ari Freyr Skúlason (born 14 May 1987) is an Icelandic international football player who plays for Lokeren in Belgium. He previously played at senior level in Iceland and Sweden, and was also a youth player in the Netherlands.

Even though his most common position is in central midfield he can also play as a winger and has been playing as a fullback with the Iceland national football team. After transferring from Sweden to Denmark in 2013 he stated in an interview that he'd asked to be bought as a left-back to cement his place as the starting left-back in the national team. He will consequently be playing as a left-back in Denmark.

Ari started his career at Valur. He then went to the Netherlands as a sixteen-year-old and spent two seasons with SC Heerenveen before being released at the end of 2005 after not being able to make the first team. He returned to his old club Valur where he played half a season before signing with Allsvenskan club BK Häcken. The club was relegated but even though they were a second tier team they were still able to compete in the UEFA Cup qualifiers the following year because of their fair play ranking. Häcken managed to progress into the main competition after Ari scored the winning goal against Scottish club Dunfermline Athletic F.C.. After the club failed to get promoted he signed with Allsvenskan club GIF Sundsvall at the end of the year. At the start of the 2012 season he became captain of the club.

On 11 July 2013 it was revealed that Ari had signed a contract with Danish Superliga club OB as of the start of 2014 (when his contract with Sundsvall expired). On 19 July it was announced that the clubs had reached an agreement for his semi-immediate transfer. On 27 July he played his last game for Sundsvall, scoring two free-kick goals in a 3-3 draw against GAIS.

On 18 July 2016, Skúlason officially joined Belgian-side K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen.

After being capped at various youth levels he got to make his debut for the Icelandic national team in 2009 against Iran. In 2012 he started getting more frequent callups from new national team manager Lars Lagerbäck. Despite Ari having been playing as a midfielder for his club side he was nonetheless picked in the Iceland squad as a left-back and has been the first-choice left-back in the national team during most of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Consequently, Ari felt that he needed to change his position at club level and asked to be bought as a left-back when he was sold in July 2013, so he could play that position at club level to be able to hold his place as the first-choice left-back in the Iceland squad, despite the fact that he has been praised as a central playmaker of high quality.

He was selected for EURO 2016. He started in all of Iceland's five matches, helping the national team go to the quarter-finals in their very first European championship.

Saturday, September 3, 2016 in Pieve di Cento (BO), Italy, in the main square of the city, Ari Frery Skulason was celebrated with a Geyser sound in his honor. A Facebook page is dedicated to the Icelandic football player, where fans ask the honorary citizenship of the Municipality of Pieve di Cento. The event broadcast on the main TV, radio, websites and newspapers, has aroused the interest of many Icelanders. The patronymic "Skulason" is a word used to describe the astonishment of the good or bad things, in local dialect in Pieve di Cento and surrounding. That's why the three organisers, all from Pieve di Cento, decided to create an event and to invite the Icelandic player to join them in Italy. The #skulasonmania spreads quickly during summer 2016. The Facebook group "Ari Freyr Skulason honorary citizen of Pieve", followed by nearly 5000 members, broadcast the event live on Facebook, followed, among others, by Ari and his family. A big success which increased popularity of Ari Skulason in Italy, and made Pieve di Cento famous in Iceland.