Video: VICE Sports Looks at Iceland’s Rise as a Soccer Micropower

On the heels of Iceland’s historic EURO 2016 victory over England, VICE Sports’ recent documentary on the team’s rapid rise in the last few years is a hot YouTube feature.

Hosted by Roger Bennett of Men In Blazers, VICE Sports went to Reykjavik to meet the visionaries, players, coaches and fans who made what had seemed a far-fetched dream at the outset, but today become fantastically real.

With a population of just 325,000, Iceland was long a joke in the footballing world. Yet, 16 years ago, the nation decided to change that, developing a bold and unprecedented masterplan that transformed the tiny volcanic island into one of football’s most effective youth development pipelines.

Against all the odds, that investment has paid off, producing a peerless generation of footballers, Vikings in cleats, whose collective team play, unshakeable confidence, and will to win, made Iceland the smallest ever nation to qualify for a major tournament at Euro 2016. and pound for pound, the sport’s greatest micropower. Just ask Roy Hodgson. Up next for the Icelanders is a EURO 2016 quarter-final meeting with hosts France.