WHEN Johann Berg Gudmundsson walks out alongside Lionel Messi in Moscow on Saturday it will be the culmination of an improbable dream that must have looked more like a fantasy when his international career began a decade ago.

Iceland are the story of this World Cup - the smallest nation ever to qualify for football’s global gathering, with a population roughly the same as the borough of Wigan.

As a football mad youngster growing up in Reykjavik, Gudmundsson would dream of playing in a World Cup, but for countries other than his home nation. Seeing Iceland in a World Cup was a leap of imagination too great even at that age.

When he made the international breakthrough as a teenager in 2008 and 2009, winning his first three caps, this reality looked further away than ever. It was an inauspicious beginning to an international career, with a home draw against Azerbaijan on debut followed by defeats a year later at home to the Faroe Islands and away at Macedonia.

But behind the disappointing results a golden generation was stirring. Now 27 and at his peak after a fine Premier League season with Burnley, Gudmundsson is part of an Iceland side feted back home after making yet more history, following their run to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016.

“I always wanted to play in the World Cup but thought ‘what country can I play for because it won’t be with Iceland.’,” Gudmundsson admitted before he jetted off to Russia.

“When I started we were so far off it, we were 130 in the world or something and not doing well. To be going is something special.”

Gudmundsson loved watching the World Cup as a youngster, but with Iceland nowhere to be seen he would support England, remembering a catalogue of tournament pain for the Three Lions.

“I remember Beckham against Argentina as one of the first (memories),” he said. “And Ronaldinho (with his lob over David Seaman in 2002).

“They all seem to be England but I supported them in big tournaments because I was watching the Premier League and knew the players.

“I remember Ronaldo, the old one, against Germany in the final (in 2006).”

Gudmundsson was part of the Iceland side that qualified for the European Under-21 Championship in 2011, the first signs that a ‘golden generation’ could be emerging.

The 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign then fuelled belief that something special could be around the corner, with Gudmundsson citing the remarkable 4-4 draw in Switzerland, in which he scored a hat-trick, as a key result before the play-off defeat to Croatia.

“With the under-21s we reached the European Championship in Denmark and felt it was a special group even though we were not thinking we’d reach the World Cup,” the former AZ Alkmaar winger said.

“Then we got into the first team and did well, made the World Cup play-off last time and that gave us massive belief. The Euros (in 2016) helped that even more.

“At the same time it’s not something we can expect will happen all the time. It will be really tough for the next one because this is a special group of players.

“It could even be the last time we make it – hopefully I am wrong but it’s such a tough thing to qualify for, with one from group and then the play-offs.

“It couldn’t happen again to get that togetherness. Six or seven of the team are my best friends, I speak to them every day. Everyone gets along.

“It’s a bit like Burnley. There are no big stars or egos, everyone is willing to put a shift in. That’s a major factor, and if you don’t get that togetherness in the next generation it may not happen again.

“We are really hard to break down. Defensively we keep quite a few clean sheets and are always dangerous on attack which is a good combination. I’d hate to play against Iceland.”

In Euro 2016 Iceland began with a draw against Portugal, with a frustrated Cristiano Ronaldo critical of their defensive tactics and celebrations at earning a point.

But Gudmundsson still rates the Real Madrid man slightly ahead of Messi ahead of his meeting with the Barcelona record breaker this weekend.

“I’ve always said Ronaldo because of where he came from. Messi is a ridiculous talent but Ronaldo worked so hard for a lot in his life,” Gudmundsson said of the sport’s two top stars.

“When he came to Man Utd he was a little skinny guy but he’s unbelievable, he loves to score and fair play to him.”

Gudmundsson felt Ronaldo’s post-game comments two years ago were ‘poor’, but he’ll be hoping for a similarly frustrated reaction from Messi as he begins his latest campaign to win the one major prize that eludes him.

“That’s what you want to do. It will be tough to play against him but as long as he is frustrated and can’t score we’re happy,” the Burnley winger said.

“Let’s just go out there and try to beat them and make him even more angry.”

In Moscow Gudmundsson will become the first Burnley player to appear at a World Cup since Billy Hamilton for Northern Ireland in 1982, an honour he’s ‘very proud’ of, and just as Burnley fans backed the Green and White Army in Spain 36 years ago, Gudmundsson expects Iceland’s famous thunderclap to reverberate around the bars of Burnley this summer.

“I hope so. I think Burnley fans will be following Iceland,” he said.