As the headquarters of both West Ham United’s Women’s senior squad and the Men’s Academy of Football, Chadwell Heath is used to young footballers being on site.
But one particular four-year-old boy has become a regular and welcome visitor to the Hammers’ historic training complex in recent years. Brynjar is the son of Women’s captain Dagný Brynjarsdóttir and her husband Ómar and, just like his mother, a big West Ham fan.
The Iceland international midfielder became a mother in June 2018, before returning to action for National Women’s Soccer League team Portland Thorns in the United States the following year. She spent the 2020 season back in her home country with Selfoss, then joined West Ham, the team she supported as a girl growing up in the village of Hella in southern Iceland, in January 2021.
Combining a career as a professional footballer with being a mother is nothing new or unique in the Women’s game – United States striker Alex Morgan and England defender Demi Stokes both gave birth before returning to the game – but Brynjarsdóttir is the only mother in the Hammers squad.
While being a captain, an important player for Club and country and a mother presents challenges, she is hugely grateful for the support she receives.
“It's not always easy,” Brynjarsdóttir smiled, speaking to whufc.com at Chadwell Heath before heading off to represent Iceland at the Pinatar Cup in Spain this month. “It can be hard some days, especially when I've been gone with national team and then we have away games here. You always feel that ‘Mum guilt’, if you don't feel like you're doing your part how you would want to do it, especially as my son is a Mummy's boy.
“I think the Club gives me a great support. If I need help, I can bring my son in to the training ground. For example, if my husband is away and I don’t have anyone to take care of him, I can bring him in. He knows everyone, he’s a big West Ham fan and he loves it!
“He’s four-and-a-half now and I took him to training recently and I heard him talking about how his Mum plays for West Ham, but I don’t think he sees it as a big thing as he’s used to it.
“The Club is very flexible and have been very nice, arranging my treatment earlier or later if I need it so I can pick him up. To be honest, I don’t think I would play for a club who didn’t give us that support.
“I am the only Mum in the squad and the Club told me from when I signed that they would always be supportive and help me out, and they’ve always tried to make things go smoothly.
“Not every club is like that, though. I have heard from other Mums that there is no support and they cannot even bring their children to the training ground, so I’m glad I get massive support from our staff.”
Childcare is not the only support Brynjarsdóttir receives from West Ham, of course.
The same month that the No10 gave birth to her son, June 2018, the Hammers signed their first full-time professional player, Rosie Kmita, having been granted entry to the FA Women’s Super League.
Five years on, West Ham have contested an FA Cup final and a squad full of international players coached by former England defender Paul Konchesky.
Brynjarsdóttir is an admirer of the work the rookie head coach has done in his first season since replacing the experienced Olli Harder last May, having initially become the New Zealander’s assistant in May 2021.
While it is played on the same pitch by the same number of players as the Men’s game, Women’s football is different physically, tactically and psychologically, and the captain says Konchesky’s willingness to learn has helped him create a strong, united squad capable of giving any opponent a stern test.
“When I joined West Ham was in a relegation battle, so I was taking a bit of a risk because I didn’t know if we were going to stay in the Super League or not, but luckily that went well,” Brynjarsdóttir recalled.
“I’m thankful that Olli brought me in and gave me the chance to play for West Ham. Konch was around the team then, too, so I’ve known him since I came in. He’s the manager now and even though he is new in that role, he was around the team for two years and has so much experience himself as a player, so he can teach us and help us a lot.
“I think Konch has done a great job so far and one of his greatest qualities is that he cares about the players. Because he retired not so long ago, he knows how it is to be a player playing at the highest level, so he can easily put himself in our shoes, which I think is quite rare as not many coaches or managers have played at his level.
“Even though it’s Konch’s first year as head coach, I think being around the team for a year before he became manager gave him good experience and he was able to be around the team but stay a bit on the side and learn a lot, which helped him when he took over.”
Brynjarsdóttir herself has been central to the Irons’ continued growth and improvement since arriving in January 2021, helping the team avoid relegation in her first half-season, finish in a record-high sixth place last term and being appointed captain ahead of the current campaign.
As well as being blessed with the character of a natural leader, the 5’11 midfielder’s stature means she is always a threat to score from set pieces and crosses, as her eight goals this season illustrate.
Brynjarsdóttir has opened the scoring in three of West Ham’s five WSL wins to date, as well as the FA Cup fourth-round win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
“I think my timing is in the box is quite good,” she observed. “When I was younger, I worked on my heading game a lot so I know I'm good on set pieces, and obviously that comes with being good in the air and timing and stuff.
“I don't know. I've always had it in me. I grew up as a striker until I was 14 and then I got put into midfield, so I think I'm just one of those midfielders who is good in front of goal. I probably don't get as many chances as many of the forwards and the strikers, but I think when I get the chances I normally take them.
“I’ve got eight goals this season, but I’m also annoyed because I missed a penalty against Tottenham and my goal that should have stood against Arsenal was taken away from me, so although I’ve finished most of my chances, there are some I have missed.
“I’ve always demanded a lot of myself and I still want to be better in front of goal. Eight goals are good, but I still remember the chances I didn’t take!”
For the 31-year-old, the challenge for her, her teammates and everyone connected with the Club is to keep improving, keep growing and, ultimately, to win their first trophy as a professional setup.
“I think everything around the Club is getting better staff-wise, facility-wise and all that, and we need to keep bringing in quality players,” she confirmed.
“When clubs start to put more investment into their Women’s side, then you will succeed and a lot of clubs have started doing that now for their Women’s teams, so we just need to keep doing what we’re doing because we want to keep growing as a team and as a Club.
“We want to win something and I could feel it in the first half of the season that we were giving the top teams a good game and the gap has got smaller. We could have been 3-0 up away to them before Christmas and then we drew at home with them recently.
“It’s just a mindset and going into a game against one of the top teams thinking ‘We’re going to win’, and I don’t think every club can think like that. That’s a big difference to when I first came in. The mindset has changed, and that comes from everything being better around the Club.”
While their FA Women’s League Cup challenge was ended by Chelsea at the semi-final stage last week, the Hammers remain in the Women’s FA Cup, where they host WSL rivals Aston Villa at Victoria Road in Dagenham in the fifth round on Sunday 26 February.
Victory over a side they beat away from home in the WSL in October would take Konchesky’s side into the quarter-finals for the third time in five seasons.
Investment means the WSL’s top four clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United – will remain the favourites to win every domestic trophy for the time being but, as Brynjarsdóttir stated, the gap between them and the next group of WSL clubs – Aston Villa, Everton and West Ham – has narrowed.
“I guess a trophy for West Ham would be my biggest ambition, that would be it,” she confirmed. “Since becoming a Mum I haven’t won a big trophy. One of my goals when I got pregnant was to win 100 caps for my national team, which I have done, and the other was to win a trophy as a Mum, and I still have that left to achieve, so hopefully we can achieve that this season.”
While cup success is clearly not beyond West Ham, winning the WSL is another matter for the time being at least, with the top four seemingly on a different level from the clubs challenging them.
But, with 16 points on the board and nine games left to play, the captain is targeting a record-high fifth-place finish come the season’s end.
“I think we're in a good position,” she confirmed. “Obviously, there were some games in the first half of the season where we're disappointed that we didn't take all three points, but that was just down to us not playing well enough.
“We collected 15 points before Christmas and now I think it's just about collecting more points because we want to go into every game and collect all three points.
“We had some players injured before Christmas but they’re now back in and we’ve got some new signings too, so it’s exciting.”
With 107 caps and 37 goals and having represented Iceland at three UEFA Women’s European Championship finals, Brynjarsdóttir is one of her country’s all-time greats.
With a population of just 380,000, the Nordic island nation punches above its proverbial weight on the football pitch, with both the Men’s and Women’s national teams reaching major tournaments in recent years.
And while the comparison is not exact, with West Ham seeking to break into the WSL’s top four for the first time, Brynjarsdóttir can see similarities in the way her country and her Club seek to upset the established order in their respective competitions.
“When you come from Iceland, that’s kind of the mindset you have. We have only 380,000 people so we’re playing against bigger nations pretty much every time, but we still go into every game thinking we’re going to win, and I think that helps me at club level because I go into every game and I don’t care who is on the other team. I just believe I can win and we can beat everyone.
“I’ve been on teams competing with world stars for a place in the team, but I still think I’m better and I should play, so I work hard to play and it’s important to have that belief that you can beat anyone.”
With that belief, and the support of her Club and her family, Brynjarsdóttir could fulfil that ambition of lifting a trophy as West Ham United captain before too long.
