Evald Mikson
Evald Mikson (Icelandic: Eðvald Hinriksson) was born on 12 July 1911 in Tartu, Estonia, and died on 27 December 1993 in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. He was an Estonian athlete and police officer, best known as a goalkeeper for the Estonia national football team, earning seven caps between 1934 and 1938. He also played basketball and ice hockey, and studied at the police academy in Tallinn.
During World War II, Mikson has been accused of collaborating with Nazi Germany and of war crimes against Jews while serving in the Estonian police during the German occupation. He escaped Estonia to Sweden in 1944, and, after a voyage to Venezuela that was blocked, ended up in Iceland, where he lived from 1946 onward. He married Sigríður Bjarnadóttir in 1949 and settled in Vestmannaeyjar, becoming a coach and helping introduce basketball to Iceland. He is considered a pioneer of Icelandic basketball and was the first coach of ÍR's men's team in 1952.
Mikson died in 1993. He had three children, including footballers Jóhannes Eðvaldsson and Atli Eðvaldsson. The record of his wartime activities is disputed: in 1992 he claimed he was being framed by a former colleague; later investigations and articles alleged involvement in death warrants in Estonia and war crimes against Jews, though some details remain contested.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:15 (CET).