Peter Schmeichel

Peter Boleslaw Schmeichel MBE (born November 18, 1963) is a Danish former professional footballer who played the position of goalkeeper and was voted the "World's Best Goalkeeper" in 1992 and 1993. He was a key member of the Danish national football team which won the 1992 European Championship (Euro 92). His most successful years were in England with club Manchester United, with whom he won the 1999 UEFA Champions League. He retired from playing football in April 2003.

He is the most capped player for the Denmark national team, with 129 games and 1 goal, and he captained the team in 30 matches. Apart from Euro 92, he also played for his country at , , the 1998 FIFA World Cup and . He retired from the national team in April 2001 when he played a planned farewell match against Slovenia.

Schmeichel is famous for his attacking threat as well as his intimidating physique. Throughout his career, Schmeichel scored 13 goals, a great feat for a keeper. Today, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers ever. The IFFHS ranked Schmeichel as the seventh best keeper of the 20th century in 2000,IFFHS' Century Elections, IFFHS, 30 January 2000 and in 2001 Schmeichel won a public poll held by Reuters, when the majority of the 200,000 participants voted him as the best goalkeeper ever, ahead of Lev Yashin and Gordon Banks. PETER SCHMEICHEL at ShowStars.dk

Playing style

At his peak he was arguably the world's best goalkeeper; a charismatic keeper with presence and excellent shot-stopping skills, but equally famous for his temper. He would frequently shout at defenders, especially Steve Bruce at Manchester United, although the two have remained firm friends, and Marc Rieper for Denmark. One of his key strengths was the long throw-out, used to launch quick counter-attacks. As soon as Schmeichel gained control of the ball from the opposing team in the United penalty area, he would search out Manchester United's two wingers Ryan Giggs and David Beckham and throw the ball to them in order to catch the opposing team off balance.

Despite being a goalkeeper, he would run into the attack on corner kicks if the team was behind. He once scored a goal in this fashion, for Manchester United, in a 1995 UEFA Cup match against Rotor Volgograd. He scored in the last minutes of the game, though to no avail as United was eliminated from the tournament on the away goals rule.

Biography

Schmeichel was born in Søborggård parish, Gladsaxe in Denmark. His father was Polish and his mother was Danish, and Peter Schmeichel was a Polish citizen until 1970 when he, his father, and his siblings became Danish citizens.Schmeichel (2000), p. 35 Schmeichel played his first years at local teams in Gladsaxe before moving to Hvidovre IF in the top-flight Danish 1st Division championship in 1984. He worked as a carpet fitter before becoming a professional footballer.

Playing career

Despite the fifth best defense in the league, conceding 40 goals in 30 gamesDanmarksturneringen 1985 at Peders Fodboldstatistik, Schmeichel and Hvidovre finished in 14th place and were relegated in 1985. After only a single season the club bounced right back to the 1st Division, but Schmeichel was lost by Hvidovre. He moved to Danish vice-champions Brøndby IF before the 1987 season. Winning the Danish league in his first year, he joined a club which he helped turn into a success. In all, Schmeichel and his club won four championships in five seasons. The climax of his Brøndby career would come in the European 1991 UEFA Cup competition, which saw Schmeichel as an important part of the team that reached the semi-finals. The club was eliminated by AS Roma with a last-minute goal by Rudi Völler.

Following his showings on the international scene, Manchester United bought him in 1991 for £533,000Brøndby »tabte« på Schmeichel, B.T. article, August 8, 1991, a price which was described in 2000 by United manager Alex Ferguson as the "bargain of the century".Schmeichel's MBE honour, BBC Sport, December 30, 2000 He and United finished runners-up in his first season, but won the FA Premier League championship for the next two years in a row. In 1994, Schmeichel fell out with Ferguson, as United had squandered a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 with Liverpool FC. The two had a row where Schmeichel "said the most horrible things" (sagde de frygteligste ting)Schmeichel (2000), p. 143 and he was subsequently fired by Ferguson. A few days later, Schmeichel made an improvised apology to the other players. Unknown to him, Ferguson was eavesdropping on this, and he let Schmeichel stay at Manchester United. Schmeichel went on to play the bulk of his career for United, eight years in total, where he enjoyed great success.

He ended his Manchester United career on the highest note in 1999, when Schmeichel and United won the Treble, the FA Premier League title, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League, in the same season. He made one of his most memorable saves in that year's FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal FC when he saved a penalty kick by Dennis Bergkamp in the last minutes of the game, and in the absence of Roy Keane he captained United in the UEFA Champions League final 2-1 win on May 26, 1999 against Bayern Munich, his last game for the club. With United, Schmeichel won five FA Premier League titles, three FA Cups, the UEFA Champions League, and a League Cup.

Schmeichel moved to Sporting Lisbon, where he won the Portuguese league title in 1999/2000, his first season with the club. His second year with Sporting would be remarkable in that it was the first time in 14 years, since his Hvidovre days, that Schmeichel's club would finish below second place in the domestic league competition. In his time at Sporting, he scored his only goal for the Danish national team, a penalty kick, in a friendly match 2-2 draw against Belgium, June 3, 2000.

He returned to England with Aston Villa in 2001. On October 20, 2001, Schmeichel became the first goalkeeper to score a Premiership goal, in a 3-2 defeat away to Everton. A goalkeeper scoring in the Premier League is a feat only repeated once, by Blackburn Rovers' Brad Friedel on February 21, 2004. Schmeichel played his last active year for Manchester City during the 2002/03 season.

Retirement

After a short stint as club owner of his childhood club Hvidovre IF, Schmeichel began hosting live UEFA Champions League-matches at Danish television channel TV3+, with Preben Elkjær and Brian Laudrup the studio pundits. He also worked as a pundit for the BBC until 2005, when he was dropped (reportedly) for speaking in long and incoherent sentences.

His popularity in Britain is perhaps best measured by Jack Duckworth on the soap Coronation Street naming his former dog (a Great Dane) 'Schmeichel'. In 2003, Schmeichel was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his impact on the English game. On March 4 2004, Peter Schmeichel was named as one of the 125 greatest living footballers, at the FIFA 100 celebrations.

He has a son, Kasper Schmeichel, who plays as goalkeeper for Manchester City. Kasper was called up for the Danish U-19 squad in August 2003 and he got his first experience of first team football at League 2 side Darlington FC in 2005.

He also took part in Soccer Aid, and played for the Rest of the World team.

Honours

Team

Danish Superliga (4): 1987, 1988, 1990, and 1991, with Brøndby IF
Danish Cup: 1989, with Brøndby IF
European Super Cup: 1991, with Manchester United
League Cup: 1992, with Manchester United
FA Premier League (5): 1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96, 1996–97, and 1998/99, with Manchester United
1992 European Football Championship, with Denmark
FA Charity Shield (4): 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1997, with Manchester United
FA Cup (3): 1994, 1996, and 1999, with Manchester United
1995 King Fahd Cup, with Denmark
UEFA Champions League: 1998-99, with Manchester United
Portuguese Superliga: 2000, with Sporting Lisbon
Inter-Toto Cup in 2001 with Aston Villa

Personal

Brøndby IF Player of the Year: 1990
Danish Player of the Year (3): 1990, 1993, and 1999
World's Best Goalkeeper: 1992 and 1993
UEFA Club Football Awards: 1997-98
English Football Hall of Fame: 2003

Runner-up

Danish Superliga: 1989, with Brøndby IF
Football League First Division: 2nd in 1992, with Manchester United
FA Premier League: 2nd in 1994/95 and 1997–98, with Manchester United
European Footballer of the Year: 5th in 1992
FIFA World Player of the Year: 5th in 1992, 4th in 1993
World's Best Goalkeeper: 4th in 1994, 2nd in 1995, 4th in 1996, 3rd in 1997, 2nd in 1999

Literature

Peter Schmeichel with Egon Balsby, "The Great Peter", Møntergården, Copenhagen, 2000, 2nd edition (ISBN 87-7901-122-5). Danish translation of: "Schmeichel: The Autobiography", Virgin, 1999 (ISBN 0753504448)

References

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Peter Schmeichel