Gudjohnsen intent on ending Icelandic dream

Eidur Gudjohnsen knows he could harm his iconic status back home in Iceland on Sunday – by helping Chelsea get closer to his dream of an FA Cup triumph.

The striker will have plenty of his countrymen around him at the Britannia Stadium because the First Division strugglers Stoke have four Icelandic players and are owned by an Icelandic business consortium which includes the chairman Gunnar Gislason. Even their physiotherapist is from Iceland.

Gudjohnsen said: "Everybody in my country follows Stoke City very closely. And I guess it must be very exciting for them, in such a small population, to say they own an English football club. They will be watching on television and all wanting Stoke to win I guess.

"So I don't know if I'll be very popular if we knock them out.

"I know a lot of the Stoke players, of course. Their centre-half Petur Marteinsson is a big friend of mine because I played in Iceland against him, and played alongside him in the Under-21 and full national team.

"When I heard the draw for the fifth round I rang him up and told him he was coming up against Chelsea and it surprised him. He didn't have a clue because he was out shopping with his wife at the time.

"Matches like this are the charm of the FA Cup. They know all about the history of it in my country and so do I. I used to watch it on the television as a boy and remember great goals in finals by Ray Wilkins and, before that, Norman Whiteside for Manchester United ... If we can do it this time it will be the greatest day of my career so far."

Chelsea have won the FA Cup three times – in 1971, 1997 and in 2000, the last final to be staged at Wembley. All that was before Gudjohnsen, now 24, arrived at Stamford Bridge in a £4m move from Bolton.

Last season he shared a 50-goal partnership with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink but it is only recently that he has started showing such form again.