Five reasons you should cheer for Iceland in Euro 2016

It's the best underdog story

We all love underdogs. They resonate with us as real people and give us hope to shatter the status quo. Iceland, a country of merely 330,000 people, does just that. Coming into the tournament – their first major tournament ever and the smallest nation to ever qualify for the Euros – Iceland was ranked 34th in the world and the odds of them winning were 100 to 1. Now, they are two wins away from being in the Euro 2016 finals.

The road ahead of them is tough, but they've shown why they deserve our support anyway.

They don't have much experience, but most of the players developed through the same youth academies, unifying them in a way that has helped them overcome more experienced teams like England.

There is no professional league, so most of the players are picked from the playing experience they have. A part-time league is the pinnacle of training the members of the Iceland team receive.

The coach – and the team – kept their day jobs

In Iceland, it's too cold for outdoor surfaces to be sustained well enough to train year-round and player compensation is minimal. Most players keep their day jobs outside of soccer.

The coach of the Iceland national team, Heimir Hallgrimsson, is also a part-time dentist.

Meanwhile, England's manager Roy Hodgson – who stepped down after his team was defeated on Monday – makes £3.5-million (roughly $6.9-million Canadian) per year.

"In Iceland, you don't make money being a football coach," Mr. Hallgrimsson said.

Iceland fans are the best – and so is their cheer

An astonishing 27,000 Icelanders bought tickets for the Euro 2016 championships in France, which represents 8 per cent of Iceland's population. If the same proportion of Canadian citizens bought tickets to a major event, it would mean 2,902,910 people would be present.

"It is like having your family at the game," defender Kári Árnason said after the 2-1 group-stage win against Austria. "I probably know at least 50 per cent of the people in the crowd."

The entire country of Iceland is smaller than the city of London, Ont., which is home to 360,000 citizens.

According to the Spanish newspaper AS English, 99.8 per cent of televisions in Iceland tuned in to their team's win against England. Only 0.2 per cent opted for a different channel. We're not sure what they were doing, but given the buzz around the team, those who didn't watch will probably never admit to it.

When Iceland played Austria during the group stage, ratings registered around a 98.5 per cent share of the viewing audience.

And once Iceland held off England, the entire crew ran to the corner where their fan base was sitting to begin their slow clap, a customary moment after Iceland games. It's known as the "Viking chant", where players and fans alike clap their hands together and slowly speed up until coming to a full clap.

A Canadian woman just became the first lady of Iceland

Voters in Iceland elected a new president last weekend. And in doing so, they made a Canadian woman the country's new first lady.

Eliza Reid, who grew up in the Ottawa Valley, will assume the role of first lady after her husband Gudni Johannesson was declared the winner of the presidential election. In Iceland, candidates run as independents.

Ms. Reid said she believed her Canadian background helped her husband's campaign. She also felt very welcomed by the Icelandic society and said it would be a "tremendous honour" to be first lady.

We already have strong ties to Iceland

Almost 100,000 people of Icelandic descent call Canada home. Manitoba boasts a large Icelandic population, with 30,025 people being from some Icelandic descent, most of them living in Gimli. Elsewere, 22,600 people of Icelandic lineage live in British Columbia while 13,130 reside in Ontario.

There is also a place called "New Iceland," which is a region on Lake Winnipeg settled in 1875 by settlers from Iceland.

A Gimli-based group called the Icelandic National League of North America strives to "promote Icelandic heritage, culture and traditions that our families brought to this continent."

Iceland takes on France Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on TSN