Faroese handball international makes his debut with the national football team

His name is Hilmar Leon Jakobsen and the year 2020 will be hard to forget. The Faroese player made his debut in this national team break against Lithuania and also had minutes against Latvia. So far everything normal for a 23-year-old footballer. The funny thing is that this year, in January, I still played handball and was international for your country. What's more, he played qualifying games for the World Cup before the crisis caused by the coronavirus completely changed his career.

Handball came to a halt and Jakobsen looked to another sport he had always been good at: soccer. In fact, he had played in the youth category until an injury made him stop. Doctors recommended that he give up football and turn to handball. This year, and driven by the coronavirus crisis, the path was reversed and he returned to football.

He signed for Torshavn to start playing for their subsidiary team. He stood out so much that he was immediately promoted to the first team. And it was there that he caught the attention of the national coach, who in this November window called him up for the first time and made him debut. In his club he had scored 12 goals in the 17 games played. Enough to call him for a selection as weak as the Faroe Islands.

In this way, the International in handball also became International in soccer. Quite an eccentricity that may only be possible in countries like Faroense, with just 52,000 inhabitants and where elite athletes are rather rare. Jakobsen is already one of the most recognized for his multidiscipline.