Quick Facts
Biography
Ólafur "Ole" Gottskálksson (born 12 March 1968 in Keflavík) is a retired Icelandic professional football goalkeeper. He played nine times for Iceland national side, despite being tall, never represented his country at basketball.
Club career
Ole Gottskálksson played for IA Akranes and KR Reykjavík before joining Scottish side Hibernian from Keflavik in July 1997 for a fee of £200,000. He played 70 times for Hibs before joining Brentford on a free transfer in May 2000. He went on to play 73 league games for Brentford, at one point having to pay for his own goalkeeping coach. He had a trial with Stockport County in July 2002 and was offered a two-year contract, but chose to remain with Brentford. He was also linked with a move to Ipswich Town, but in November 2002 was forced to retire due to a shoulder injury.
He returned to Iceland and resumed his playing career with Grindavik.
On his return to the United Kingdom in August 2004, he had a trial with Grimsby Town, before joining Conference South side Margate, moving to Torquay United the following month, as a replacement for the departing Arjan van Heusden. He was one of seven goalkeepers used that season (the others being Phil Barnes, Bertrand Bossu, Kevin Dearden, Paul Jarvie, Andy Marriott and Arjan van Heusden) and played 15 league games for Torquay before disappearing in January 2005 when, according to then Torquay chairman Mike Bateson, doping testers arrived at Plainmoor for routine testing and Gottskálksson was chosen to give a sample. On viewing the list of banned substances he fled Torquay, leaving his girlfriend behind without an explanation. In June 2005, the Football Association announced that an independent disciplinary commission had banned Gottskálksson from football indefinitely for failing to take that drugs test.
In March 2010 Ole was sentenced to a ten months prison term in Iceland for housebreaking, robbery and violent attack. In October 2011 he was sentenced to additional four months in prison for similar charges, including serious violence.
International career
He played ten times for the Iceland national side. His last international match came in February 1998 in a 1-0 Cyprus International Football Tournament defeat against Norway.
Honours
Brentford
- Football League Trophy runner-up: 2001