Róbert Frosti Thorkelsson plays right winger and central midfielder for Stjarnan Gardabaer, providing 2 goals and 5 assists in 27 appearances between the Besta deild and its playoffs. The Icelandic U21 international provided creativity from Stjarnan’s midfield line, quickly establishing himself as a regular starter after 5 goal contributions in just 734 minutes last season. At just 19 with plenty of senior minutes under his belt already, the future is bright.
Standing around 1.78 m with a sturdy frame for his age, Thorkelsson deals with contact and general physicality well in his domestic league. He is explosive in short areas and his pace relative this level is above average. Thorkelsson also changes direction well as he comes to quick stops with mostly consistent body control into an explosive first step. Mentally, he has displayed, in moments, promise of an intelligent attacker in a better league. An example of this is having the restraint to let a ball in behind to him go for another teammate to get onto as he knew he was offside. Thorkelsson’s developing tactical awareness and unselfishness pairing with his athleticism will be key to earning a move abroad for himself.
When attacking from his own half and middle third, his best trait is as a progressive carrier. Utilizing his immense pace to push forward over the midline and glide past markers, Thorkelsson is a reliable progressor of the ball, especially on the counter. Off ball, he does his best making runs up the right half space or the wing to receive in behind, taking it in stride for those pacy, channel/flank-stretching carries. To end these moves, Thorkelsson would either hold up and scan calmly inside into a safe ground pass with his dominant right foot from short range or line up his marker to begin to cut inside with a turn of pace while keeping his head up to still scan. From there, his creativity blossoms. Unlocking lanes for teammates to get in behind with during his explosive dribbling angled inside is only the beginning. To complete it, Thorkelsson provides frequent through passes with varying success into the final third to get it into teammates in stride for either a cross/cutback or a shot of their own. In addition, when distributing from the wings, he thrives when combining play, especially when he is the wide player passing inside first into a quick run to the outside shoulder of his marker gains the boundary. His dribbling control paired with his explosiveness makes him a hard man to mark. Additionally, Thorkelsson has semi-reliable left footed control and accuracy on his passing. Regarding finishing, he has plenty of room to improve, primarily finishing first time on the end of runs that are mostly inaccurate. He primarily finished for power and must do a lot of work on his ball striking technique.
Defensively, Thorkelsson’s speed and high effort make him a serviceable no. 8 when asked to play that role. Giving chase in the press and closing out to the wings are tasks he performs with ease and can dispossess opponents that way with timely stand challenges or by attempting to cut out passing lanes. Cutting out passing lanes is not his best defensive action, though, as being tasked with lunging into the way and backing off opponents allows him to get lazy defending from his midfield line. Aerially, he is not impressive for his short stature but does get the job done at a solid rate. Thorkelsson’s defensive work begins and ends with his athleticism, so his ability to defend once he moves on to a higher quality league should be monitored.
Thorkelsson has developed into one of Iceland’s best up and coming prospects. He has proven it through his play both domestically and in Europe while moving up two age groups within the national team. The Icelandic playmaker should take another year to establish himself as one of the best players domestically before moving to a Sweden or Norway. If he proves himself there, Thorkelsson should have no problem performing in leagues just outside the top 5.
Target Scouting 
1 comment