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Why everyone is so obsessed with Iceland's World Cup team.

One of the world’s biggest sporting events, the FIFA World Cup, kicked off earlier this week.

But besides Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, there’s another name that’s on everyone’s lips: Iceland.

The team, currently ranked number 22 in the world by FIFA, just made their World Cup debut and fans are falling in love with their backstory.

You see, Iceland has a pretty small population – around 330,000 people – so many of the team’s players actually have other careers, outside of football.

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Icelandic football manager Heimir Hallgrimsson, 51, may be managing a World Cup-qualified team – but he’s still got a day job.

“To save questions again: I’m still a dentist. And I will never stop being a dentist,” Hallgrimsson said.

Hallgrimsson and the Iceland team are well aware of the team’s ‘cute factor’.

“You can’t help but love Iceland,” Hallgrimsson said. “We haven’t attacked anyone. We haven’t been at war with anyone. We’ve only had the Cod Wars with England and no one got hurt there. It’s a pretty little nation and pretty people, in general. You can’t help but love us.”

In the small nation of Iceland, there are only 21,5o0 registered football players.

The World Cup team includes a factory worker, a film director, and even a board game designer. Yes, really.

No wonder everyone is falling in love with little old Iceland.

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