Prospect Highlight: Agust Godi Kjartansson, 2004, ISL, Schwenningen
Icelandic 2004-born talent Agust Kjartansson changed clubs within Germany this off-season and is shining in the third division ProB with Black Forest Panthers Schwenningen.
Agust Godi Kjartansson made an investment in himself with a move from Iceland to Germany in 2021, but the 19-year-old point guard talent faced the challenge of being considered a foreigner. Kjartansson ended up switching clubs and levels this past off-season, moving to ProB third division side Black Forest Panthers Schwenningen. And he is starting to really take off.
Kjartansson came up in the youth ranks of Haukar Hafnarfjordur and made his Icelandic first division debut in the 2019-20 season about a month shy of his 16th birthday. After three appearances in the top flight that season he played in 10 first division games in 2020-21 - collecting 12 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in a combined 27 minutes.
The 1.86 meter (6’1”) point guard played in the U18 Nordic Championship in the summer of 2021 and it was afterwards that Kjartansson decided to leave Iceland. The 17-year-old chose Germany and picked Uni Baskets Paderborn, a team playing in the second division ProA and one that had a decent history of developing young players including Fritz and Peter Hemschemeier, Luis Figge, Adrian Petkovic, Vincent Neugebauer and Lars Kamp.
In the 2021-22 season, Kjartansson played in one game in the ProA while starring in the U19 NBBL league, averaging 14.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, an NBBL best 6.8 assists and 2.7 steals. He also played in the fifth division 2. Regionalliga.
The following summer saw Kjartansson make his FIBA debut, playing for Iceland at the FIBA U18 European Championship 2022, Division B. Iceland were trying to get to Division A for the first time since 2006 and had a pretty strong roster including Kjartansson, Tomas Thrastarson, Almar Atlason and Daniel Halldorsson.
Iceland lost to only Denmark in the group stage and then defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Quarter-Finals only to lose to Sweden in the Semi-Finals.
That meant a historic showdown with Finland in the Third Place Game with the winner going to Division A - Finland would be returning after having been relegated from Division A in 2019. Iceland built a 13-point lead midway through the third quarter but ended up losing 72-66. Kjartansson contributed 8 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in the loss. And for the tournament he averaged 7.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists - his best game coming in the Quarter-Finals with 11 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
Going into the 2022-23 season, Kjartansson was hoping to play a role in Paderborn’s ProA team. But he was considered a foreigner in Germany and had to earn his playing time ahead of Paderborn’s two American point guards Buzz Anthony and George Brock. On top of that is the rule in ProA that two Germans must be on the court at all time.
Kjartansson ended up playing just 4 games in the second division, picking up 13 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists in a combined 37 minutes. He played predominantly in the U19 NBBL again and collected 15.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, a league-best 6.9 assists and 1.5 steals.
Kjartansson took over in the NBBL playoffs. In the Round of 16 against Münster he put together games of 28 points, 2 rebounds, 16 assists and 4 steals; 20/9/5/1; and 22/4/14 in getting Paderborn into the Quarter-Finals.
Kjartansson tallied 17/3/7 and 21/8/11 in the two games against Quakenbrück but struggled with just 4-of-22 three-pointers in two losses.
Kjartansson’s summer was spent back with the Iceland national team and playing in the Division A of the FIBA U20 European Championship 2023 - the country’s first summer in the top flight since 2018.
Kjartansson was back playing alongside Thrastarson and Atlason along with Orri Gunnarsson. Iceland beat Slovenia to finish 1-2 in the group stage and then after losing to Greece in the Round of 16 squared off against Montenegro in the important Classification 9-16. The winner of that game would be secured a spot in the Division A the following summer. Kjartansson chipped in 6 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in a dominant 99-73 win as Gunnarsson scored 30 points, Thrastarson had 22 points and Atlason picked up 21 points.
For the U20 tournament, Kjartansson averaged 10.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists - with one of his best showings coming against Germany in the group stage as he tallied 21 points and 7 assists.
One month after the U20 tournament, Kjartansson’s name was back in the news in Germany as the now 19-year-old decided to move from Paderborn because he wanted to get more playing time. He ended up signing with Black Forest Panthers Schwenningen in the third division ProB South.
The team was promoted to the ProA in 2019 but then were relegated to the ProB in 2023 as the club faced major financial issues.
The club was reorganized and renamed with new management and a new coach - Spaniard Marti Zamora - with the goal establishing itself in the ProB and eventually getting back up to the ProA.
In the ProB, Kjartansson would actually face even stricter foreigner limits as three Germans must be on the court at all time for ProB games. Still Kjartansson is one of just two foreigners on the team along with American professional rookie power forward Luke Lawson as Uganda small forward Womala plays as a German.
Womala is one of many interesting players on the Schwenningen side as he played for FC Bayern Munich’s youth ranks as did Jeremia Agyepong; while Alexander Lagerman was a product of the Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt youth clubs; Thomas Gaus and Laurin Ertekin came up in the ratiopharm ulm system; Christian Okolie was with Tübingen growing up; and Jegor Gymbal moved from Artland Dragons.
On top of that is Daniel Mayr, a 7-2 former superstar talent in Jena’s system whose career has been derailed by injuries but is still only 28 years old. Mayr is now part of the club management group as well.
Kjartansson has been given the keys to the Panthers car and the Icelandic talent is really starting to excel. For the season, he is averaging 13.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.2 steals in more than 32 minutes per game while also committing 5.2 turnovers per game and hitting 28.3 percent from long range.
Kjartansson twice had 11 assists in a game, scoring 11 and 18 points in those games to go with 3 and 6 turnovers, respectively. But in his last two games - at home versus Fellbach and at Fraport Skyliners Juniors - Kjartansson has picked up his scoring.
(Here the live stream of the game against Frankfurt - Kjartansson with 30 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals)
He has made 21-of-42 shots in the last two games including 13-of-25 three-pointers (52 percent) while scoring 28 and 30 points. He also has combined for 5 assists, 9 rebounds and 3 steals but 12 turnovers.
Development is one thing but the question is also can Kjartansson help Schwenningen stay in the ProB. Through 10 games, the team is just 2-8 in last place. Kjartansson is not the only young player on the team, which is essentially a U23 team, but Germany basketball fans can see what the Icelandic talent can really do.
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