Stjarnan
The club
Ungmennafélag Stjarnan was founded on 30 October 1960 by the educators Bragi Friðriksson and Vilberg Júlíusson as a multi-sport youth association in Garðabær, a town on the edge of the Reykjavík capital area in Iceland. The men's football team played its way up through the divisions, reaching the top-tier league for the first time in 1980, winning the second tier in 2000 to return to the top flight, and then again in 2008, after which it has stayed in the Icelandic top division, now called Besta deild karla, continuously since 2009.
Stjarnan play at Stjörnuvöllur in Garðabær, currently known by its sponsor name Samsung völlurinn, which holds 1,298. The home kit is royal blue shirts and socks with white shorts; the away kit is predominantly white. Jóhann Ingimundarson is listed as chairman and Jökull I. Elísabetarson as head coach in the most recently updated club infobox, though Wikipedia's separate list of past managers had not been updated past Þorvaldur Örlygsson, in charge from 6 May 2021, so the exact date of any handover to Elísabetarson was not established from the sources read here. Stjarnan became internationally known in the early 2010s for elaborately choreographed goal celebrations, including routines depicting landing a fish, a diving contest, a human toilet, a human bicycle and a scene styled on Rambo, which went viral online.
Recent seasons
In the 2025 Besta deild karla, Stjarnan finished third in the Championship Round with 42 points from 27 matches, 12 wins, 6 draws and 9 defeats, 50 goals scored and 45 conceded; Víkingur Reykjavík won the title with 57 points. Through the 2026 season, as of 24 August 2026, Stjarnan sat seventh of twelve with 24 points from 20 matches, 7 wins, 3 draws and 10 defeats, 38 goals for and 48 against, and had gone into the Relegation Round rather than the Championship Round; Víkingur Reykjavík again led the table, defending their title with 51 points from 16 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat. League placings for the intervening seasons between 2016 and 2024 were not established from the sources read here.
Honours and landmarks
Stjarnan won their first and only Úrvalsdeild karla (now Besta deild karla) title in 2014, going through the season unbeaten and equalling the division's points record of 52. They were runners-up in 2016. In the second tier, they were 1. deild karla champions in 1989. They won the Icelandic Cup in 2018, having been runners-up in 2012 and 2013, and won the Icelandic Super Cup twice, in 2015 and again on 18 April 2019, when they beat Valur on a 6-5 penalty shootout.
Notable scorelines
Stjarnan's best European run, in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League, produced two big aggregate wins: 8-0 over Bangor City of Wales in the first qualifying round and 5-4 over Motherwell of Scotland in the second qualifying round, before a narrower 1-0 aggregate win over Lech Poznań of Poland in the third qualifying round. Their heaviest European defeat came at the very next stage of that same campaign, an aggregate 9-0 loss to Inter Milan in the play-off round, which put them out one step short of the group stage rather than into it. Other heavy European defeats followed in later campaigns: 0-7 on aggregate to Copenhagen in the 2018/19 Europa League second qualifying round and 1-7 on aggregate to Espanyol in the 2019/20 Europa League second qualifying round. Domestic record wins and defeats were not established from the sources read here.
European record
Stjarnan's European history begins with the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League, in which they beat Bangor City 8-0 on aggregate and Motherwell 5-4 on aggregate before edging Lech Poznań 1-0 in the third qualifying round; they were eliminated in the play-off round, losing 9-0 on aggregate to Inter Milan, one round short of the group stage. In the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League they lost 6-1 on aggregate to Celtic in the second qualifying round. In the 2017/18 Europa League they lost 2-0 on aggregate to Shamrock Rovers in the first qualifying round. In 2018/19 they beat Nõmme Kalju 3-1 in the first qualifying round before losing 7-0 on aggregate to Copenhagen in the second. In 2019/20 they eliminated FCI Levadia on the away-goals rule after a 4-4 aggregate draw in the first qualifying round, then lost 7-1 on aggregate to Espanyol in the second. In the 2021/22 UEFA Europa Conference League they lost 4-1 on aggregate to Bohemians in the first qualifying round. In the 2024/25 Conference League they beat Linfield 4-3 on aggregate before losing 5-2 on aggregate to Paide Linnameeskond.
In the 2026/27 Conference League, Stjarnan opened with a first qualifying round tie against Víkingur Gøta of the Faroe Islands. They won the first leg 3-1 at Stjörnuvöllur in Garðabær on 9 July 2026, in front of 710, Emil Atlason scoring a hat-trick including two penalties (42nd, 66th, 78th minutes) and Aron Benjaminsen replying for Víkingur in the 12th minute; the referee was Mohammad Usman Aslam of Norway. The second leg, at Við Djúpumýrar in Klaksvík on 16 July 2026 in front of 527, finished 2-2, Benjaminsen (59') and Sonni Vatnhamar (61') scoring for Víkingur and Kolbeinn Ingason (68') and Guðmundur Baldvin Nökkvason (81') replying for Stjarnan; the referee was Karl Koppel of Estonia. Stjarnan went through 5-3 on aggregate.
The second qualifying round brought Ilves of Finland. Stjarnan won the first leg 1-0 at Stjörnuvöllur on 23 July 2026, in front of 591, Nökkvason scoring in the 84th minute; the referee was Oscar Johnson of Sweden. The second leg, at Tammelan Stadion in Tampere on 30 July 2026 in front of 4,201, went to extra time. Jesse Kilo put Ilves ahead in the 52nd minute; an own goal credited to Ilves's Faris Krkalić levelled it for Stjarnan in the 107th minute, before Tatu Miettunen restored Ilves's lead in the 113th minute, making the second leg 2-1 to Ilves after extra time. The referee was Mervan Bejtullahu of Kosovo. The tie finished 2-2 on aggregate and Ilves went through on penalties, 5-4, eliminating Stjarnan from the competition.
Head-to-head notes
Stjarnan's most recent European ties, against Víkingur Gøta and then Ilves in July 2026, were both first meetings between the clubs, so no historical head-to-head pattern applies there. Domestically, Stjarnan's closest geographic rivals in the Reykjavík capital area include Víkingur Reykjavík, KR and Fram, and results against those three in the 2026 Besta deild karla were among the matches that sent Stjarnan into the Relegation Round rather than the Championship Round, but specific head-to-head records against them were not established from the sources read here.
Right now (2026/27)
Stjarnan's 2026/27 European campaign is over: after beating Víkingur Gøta of the Faroe Islands in the first qualifying round in July, they were eliminated by Ilves of Finland in the second qualifying round on 30 July 2026, losing on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate draw that went to extra time. Iceland's domestic season runs through the same summer window as the early UEFA qualifying rounds, since Besta deild karla is a March-to-October calendar-year competition rather than a split-year one; Stjarnan's European exit in July therefore fell in the middle of their 2026 league campaign, not at the end of it. As of 24 August 2026 Stjarnan were seventh of twelve in the 2026 Besta deild karla with 24 points from 20 matches, seven wins, three draws and ten defeats, and had been placed in the Relegation Round rather than the Championship Round for the closing phase of the season; Víkingur Reykjavík led the table as defending champions. Jökull I. Elísabetarson is named as head coach and Jóhann Ingimundarson as chairman in the most recently updated club information. Summer 2026 transfer business and the final league placing were not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stjarnan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stjarnan_(men%27s_football) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Besta_deild_karla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Besta_deild_karla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_phase_and_play-off_round https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(first_and_second_round_matches)
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.