Ólafur Örn Bjarnason (born 15 May 1975) is an Icelandic former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is currently the Head of Coaching at Danish Superliga side AaB.
Club career He started his career in Grindavík, and returned there after two years in Swedish club Malmö FF. In 2004, he moved from Grindavík to SK Brann in Bergen, Norway. His first season was successful, and he played every league match. In 2006, he formed one of Norway's strongest centre back duo with his countryman, Kristján Örn Sigurðsson, together named Örneredet (en: eagles nest).Olafur Orn Bjarnason set to leave Brann, News | Infobettor
He returned to Grindavík in August 2010 in a player/manager role. With 213 official matches for Brann, he's the most capped foreign player, and 11th most capped player in the club's history. Before the 2013 season he signed for Fram.
International career Ólafur has been capped 27 times for Iceland. He made his début in a friendly match in June 1998 against South Africa as a substitute for Sverrir Sverrisson.
Coaching career On 24 June 2010 returned to Grindavík and was named as their new head coach, he replaced Milan Stefán Jankovic.Ólafur Örn Bjarnason ráðinn þjálfari Grindavíkur - Samkomulag í höfn við Brann After the 2011 season he quit as manager, but decided nonetheless to play for them in the 2012 season. On September 9, 2013, Ólafur confirmed that he was hanging up his boots.Ólafur Örn leggur skóna á hilluna, visir.is, 9 September 2013
In early 2014, Ólafur became manager of the Norwegian club FK Fyllingsdalen.Ólafur Örn warns Norwegian clubs against filling their teams with Icelanders, visir.is, 14 July 2014 He held this position until the end of 2016, when he became manager of Egersunds IK from New Year 2017.Brann-helten har fått ny trenerjobb, aftenbladet.no, 25 November 2016 Ólafur retired from Egersund in the summer of 2018 and shortly after got a job in the Norwegian Football Federation in the Agder region, in a role as KA Coach Development.Olafur Ørn Bjarnason er engasjert som ny KA Trenerutvikling i NFF Agder, fotball.no, 17 September 2018 He held this role until May 2023.
In the winter of 2023, Ólafur started working as Head of Academy at Stabæk.LYKKE TIL VIDERE, OLAFUR!, stabak.no, 12 July 2024 He left that position in July 2024 when he accepted a job as Head of Coaching at Danish club AaB.Olafur Bjarnason bliver Head of Coaching i AaB, aabsport.dk, 12 July 2024
Honours
Norway Norwegian Premier League: 2007 Norwegian cup: 2004
References