Ex-Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur striker Eidur Gudjohnsen is now taking to the skies as he began pilot lessons following a playing career where he would ‘get lamped every week’.
The Iceland international forged a successful Premier League career, winning the title back-to-back at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho. Gudjohnsen spent six years at Stamford Bridge before joining Barcelona where he won La Liga and the Champions League – later returning to London at Spurs in a short loan spell in 2010.
Gudjohnsen’s time at Chelsea saw him a part of one of the greatest Premier League sides to date, where the Blues conceded a record-low 15 goals during the 2004/05 season. And the partying lifestyle behind that successful team was previously revealed – with Gudjohnsen one of the ringleaders.
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Former team-mate of Gudjohnsen’s at Chelsea, Damien Duff, previously revealed on the Open Goal Podcast that under Jose Mourinho the players, led by captain John Terry, would get ‘lamped every week’ to help unify the team.
Duff said: “Even when we were playing 60 or 70 games a season, we were out together on the town and p***ed. We'd be out all the time. A few of the foreign boys would flip in and flip out.
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“They'd go out, not drink and feel good the next day whereas the British, Irish and Icelandic lads would go out and get absolutely lamped. This was every week. It was the norm.”
The former Republic of Ireland international said how the core group of English players and Gudjohnsen gave themselves a nickname that he didn’t want to be a part of, he added: “The English lads, I never wanted to be part of them.
“They always called themselves 'The Bulldogs' – it would have been Bridgy, Lamps, JT, a couple of the English physios. Eidur [Gudjohnsen] was involved in it. Because of the Irish thing, [I thought] ‘I want to be part of your group but you're not calling me a bulldog’.”
After retiring in 2016 following other spells at Stoke City, Fulham and Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League, Gudjohnsen revealed on his Instagram he is learning to become a pilot. The 45-year-old posted a video of himself in the cockpit with the caption: “Captain for a day”, as he took the reins of a light aircraft.
Unlike his piloting venture, his managerial career never got off the ground. Gudjohnsen has twice been the boss of Icelandic top-flight side FH and also been the assistant at Iceland’s U21 side and senior side.
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