Iceland vs. Wales: Which one is more inspirational?

On one hand, you have Iceland. A nation of a little bit more than 300,000. Yet they make some talented footballers in some of Europes top leagues. All thanks to realizing that they had a weather problem and fixing it by making indoor and heated outdoor fields.

On the other side you have Wales. A footballing nation with only one tournament under their belt before Euro 2016, are now national heroes. Bale, Ramsey, Coleman and co all revived Welsh football into a team to be taken seriously.

So which one do you like better? I'd go with Iceland. Even though Wales went further in the Euros Iceland stole the show at Euro 2016 with beating England and their now iconic celebration.

Iceland has much worse team on paper so in a sense its more inspirational but they also had much more luck.

For just a straight up "minnow going far" thing I'd go with Iceland because they're so tiny and they beat England and tied the eventual winners along the way. For which team was more impressive though I'd say Wales, they played much better football and probably deserved their run more.

Yea Wales at least have the holy trinity in Bale, Ramsey and Allen. Iceland mainly rely on Sigurdsson.

I can't take anything away from Wales though since they were fantastic at the Euros. but Iceland have made themselves relevant as well.

Iceland's story is perhaps more inspirational.

Iceland.

Dunno if I even count Wales as a proper sporting nation, Cardiff and Swansea play in the English PL

They need to become a completely independent sporting entity asap as does Scotland.

RealGunner wrote:Iceland mainly rely on Sigurdsson.

Don't forget Birkir Bjarnason and of course Hannes Þór Halldórsson

Oh, I find Iceland more inpirational, especially if you consider how difficult it is for them to play in their climate. There kids will likely find it a bit too cold to play some proper street football, but have to actively go for clubs where they then can use the indoor halls etc, thus not making it easy for the broad populace (which is not really that broad when compared to other countries) to play in their free time.

Oh, and while we talk about inspirational - more power to the Faroe Islands which have a population of 50,000 in a similar wild climate and who currently collected 4 points of of the 2 WCQ matches in their group against Hungary and Latvia away...