Peter Schmeichel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peter Schmeichel
Peter Schmeichel-2011.jpeg
Peter Schmeichel (2011)
Personnel
Surname Peter Bolesław Schmeichel
birthday November 18, 1963
place of birth GladsaxeDenmark
size 193 cm
position goalkeeper
Juniors
Years station
Hvidovre IF
until 1980 Gladsaxe
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1980-1984 Gladsaxe Hero
1984-1987 Hvidovre IF
1987-1991 Brøndby IF 119 (2)
1991-1999 Manchester United 292 (1)
1999-2001 Sporting Lisbon 50 (0)
2001-2002 Aston Villa 29 (1)
2002-2003 Manchester City 29 (0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1984-1986 Denmark U-21 8 (0)
1987-2001 Denmark 129 (1)
1 Only league games are given.

Peter Bolesław Schmeichel , MBE [ ped̥ɐ ˈsmɑɪ̯ˀɡ̊l̩ ] (born November 18, 1963 in Gladsaxe ) is a former Danish football goalkeeper . He has been named World Goalkeeper of the Year twice in the course of his professional career . Schmeichel achieved high fame among other things as a national goalkeeper by winning the European Championship in 1992 and as number one at the Manchester United football club in the 1990s. With United, he won five British Championships , three FA Cup trophies , a league cup edition , and in 1999 the Champions League . Between 1988 and 2000 he took part in four consecutive European Championship final tournaments and in 1998 at the World Cup in France . His goalkeeping game was characterized by an enormous physique, which with a height of over 1.90 meters and a body weight of more than 100 kilograms often had an intimidating effect on opponents and also did not restrict his mobility. He was also characterized by the loud announcements in the game, with which he commanded the defenders placed in front of him or criticized them for mistakes. His son Kasper Schmeichel followed in his footsteps and also became an English first division and Danish national goalkeeper.

Club career

Beginnings in Denmark (until 1991)

Schmeichel was born in the eastern Danish parish of Søborggård Sogn ( Gladsaxe Kommune ) as the son of the Polish jazz musician Antoni Schmeichel and a Danish nurse. He was still a Polish citizen until 1970 - his middle name Bolesław goes back to his great-grandfather - before he, his father and his siblings were naturalized. He spent his early years around ten kilometers northwest of Copenhagen in Buddinge and his footballing career began in the neighboring suburb of Høje Gladsaxe with the first game at the age of eight in August 1972. After two and a half years without defeat, the young goalkeeper joined the team for his good youth work well-known club Hero , which was located a few leagues above Høje-Gladsaxe and later merged with Gladsaxe to Gladsaxe-Hero BK . During this time, Schmeichel was given the opportunity to stand between the posts for the Zeeland regional selection .

After moving to the senior division of Gladsaxe-Hero, Schmeichel met Svend Aage Hansen , who acted as coach of the first team and was henceforth his mentor - later he even became Schmeichel's father-in-law. When the then third division team had already been relegated, Hansen Schmeichel and six other youth players called on the team on the third last match day. The game against Birkerød was lost 0-1, but the local newspapers positively highlighted Schmeichel's performance. At the end of the season, Hansen opened up a career plan for him that planned to stay with his team for two more years, then move to Hvidovre IF , from there to mature to the Danish national goalkeeper and later to have a successful career abroad. At the same time, Schmeichel had received a request from B 1903 Copenhagen , but the club rejected it as "a bit boring". Before starting his professional career, Schmeichel had “regular jobs”. His first job was in the dye works of a textile company, which he gave up after some concerns about safety issues. A year later he worked as a cleaner in a retirement home before taking up an office job at WWF . Just a few weeks after being hired, he was promoted to sales manager. Furthermore, shortly afterwards he had to do his military service, whereby this obligation collided with the tasks as a goalkeeper for Hvidovre and as a WWF employee. This led him to quit the WWF and work for his father-in-law's cleaning company. The activities required of him there, however, were not ideal for the Schmeichel, who at that time already weighed around 95 kilograms, and so he then worked in the advertising company of Hvidovre's president. This job was his last before fully entering the football business and in the spring of 1987 he received a contract offer from Brøndby IF . At Hvidovre he was one of the top performers, although he had to relegate to the second division in 1985 despite only conceding 40 goals in 30 league games . In the following year he managed to get up again and before the subsequent 1987 season he went to Brøndby.

Schmeichel won the Danish championship in his first year with Brøndby and during this time he made his debut as the Danish national goalkeeper under Sepp Piontek in May 1987 - just one year later he became a regular goalkeeper at the Euro 1988 in Germany . Overall, Schmeichel won four league titles in five years and at the height of his Danish club career he reached the semifinals of the UEFA Cup in 1991 , which was only just lost to AS Roma by a "last-minute goal" by Rudi Völler .

Manchester United (1991-1999)

In August 1991 Schmeichel joined the English club Manchester United for a transfer fee of £ 500,000 - the transfer was also facilitated by the fact that Schmeichel had been a supporter of "United" from an early age. He made his debut at home against Notts County on August 17, 1991 and remained clean in the 2-0 win as well as in the following three games. He made 40 league games in the 1991/92 season and Manchester's defense conceded only 33 goals that year. Nevertheless, this was not enough to win the English championship , because in the end only the second place jumped out behind Leeds United . Before that, however, he had already won his first major trophy in England with the League Cup and in the 1-0 final victory over Nottingham Forest he was again harmless. Schmeichel was considered one of the world's best goalkeepers at the latest with the surprising win of the 1992 European Championship with Denmark. He preserved his good form in the subsequent 1992/93 season, helped Manchester United win their first English league title in 26 years and was then elected Team of the Year . The following year Schmeichel defended the Premier League title with United ; in addition he stood with his men in both domestic cup finals. While the final in the League Cup was lost 3-1 to Aston Villa and Schmeichel was represented by Les Sealy , the 4-0 win in the FA Cup against Chelsea with Schmeichel between the posts made for the first “double” in the club's history. In March 1994 he had improved Alex Stepney's record of 92 games for Manchester United without interruption. His first long injury break overtook him in the middle of the 1994/95 season, which put him out of action for around six weeks. Other disappointments were sporting nature and in the title race you had in 1995 to Blackburn Rovers are as much as beaten in the final of the FA Cup to Everton FC 0: 1st

In addition to his skills as a goalkeeper, Schmeichel increasingly participated in offensive actions from the mid-1990s. The team benefited from its strengths in the passing game, which were particularly effective in counter-attacks. Shortly before the end of the game, he regularly took his own corners into the opposing penalty area when a goal was urgently needed. He often at least caused confusion among opponents and in the first round of the UEFA Cup he even scored a goal against Rotor Volgograd . However, it was not enough to advance, but despite the disappointment in the European Cup, the 1995/96 season was successful again. On the way to winning his third English championship , Schmeichel again played a key role. He remained clean in twelve of the last 16 league games and especially his performance in a direct duel with the worst rivals Newcastle United , which was won 1-0, was very praised by experts. With a 1-0 win in the FA Cup final against Liverpool , Schmeichel secured the second English double in his career with United. Further English championships followed in 1997 and 1999 , with the FA Cup joining in for a third time in 1999 . In November 1998 Schmeichel had already announced his withdrawal from English football on the grounds that he feared that he would no longer meet the high demands in the future. His last appearance was on May 26, 1999 in Barcelona in the final of the Champions League . Manchester dramatically turned the game into a 2-1 win in stoppage time with two goals from previously substituted Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær . Then Schmeichel left the "Red Devils", for which he remained in a total of 292 league games 177 times without conceding.

Career finale (1999–2003)

Schmeichel went to Portugal to Sporting Lisbon free of charge , although the decision also had family reasons, because in addition to the new sporting challenge, he wanted to offer his family a “different lifestyle in warmer climes”. He found himself with the new club in a similar situation as before in Manchester. As a traditional club, Sporting had not won the domestic championship for a long time and Schmeichel was able to end the 18-year drought in its first season 1999/2000 - with only 22 goals conceded in 34 games. The spirit of optimism in the club, which was also recruited from Schmeichel's personality, faltered the following year and in addition to falling to third place in the domestic league, Schmeichel and Sporting presented himself in the Champions League with only two points in six group games as bottom of the table, without luck . In the summer of 2001, Schmeichel decided after two weeks of deliberation to end his engagement in Portugal and continue his career in the English Premier League (and thus against an end to his career, which was speculated in public due to a hand injury that was considered permanent).

The choice fell on Aston Villa and the responsible coach John Gregory was able to compensate for the departure of David James with Schmeichel's commitment . He continued to show his leadership skills in Birmingham, only missed a few games due to injury and was, as is now usual with him, not only dangerous in the case of a deficit in corner kicks in the late phase of games, but also successful in the game against Everton FC . The new coach Graham Taylor then no longer planned with the "Danish old master" and instead relied on the Finnish national goalkeeper Peter Enckelman , who had been committed three years earlier (and Boaz Myhill as a substitute keeper), so that Schmeichel did not extend the one-year contract and made the change in April 2002 announced to Manchester City . Four months earlier he had been awarded the British Order of Merit as "MBE" for his sporting achievements .

The 2002/03 season with the "Citizens" was Schmeichel's last as a professional and he continued to show stable performances. Special mention was made of his contribution to the 2-1 away win at Liverpool FC and although coach Kevin Keegan would have liked to work with him for another year, Schmeichel ended his career after this year. A calf injury in particular had proven to be very persistent.

Danish national team

Schmeichel was in the goal of the Danish U-21 national team for the first time in May 1984 against the selection of the GDR. The game was lost 3-1 and in the next two years he played seven more games. He also took part in the U-21 European Championship and failed with his men in March 1986 on the English offspring in two quarter-finals. From May 1987 he guarded the box of the Danish Olympic selection in eight games, which ultimately failed in qualifying just behind the eventual bronze winner Germany. In between he was in May 1988 for the first time for the regular Danish national team between the posts and after a total of two appearances against Hungary (2: 2) and a month later against Belgium (3: 1) he was part of the squad at the Euro Started in Germany in 1988 . Troels Rasmussen was the Danish "number 1" in the first game , before coach Sepp Piontek relied on Schmeichel after the 2: 3 against Spain in the two subsequent games (which were both lost 2: 2 to the hosts and Italy ) .

From then on he remained the goalkeeper of the Danish selection and after the narrow failure in the World Cup qualification against Romania in the decisive final game in mid-November 1989 in Bucharest (1: 3), the subsequent European championship in 1992 was missed. As runner-up behind the selection of Yugoslavia, Denmark moved into the field after the exclusion of Yugoslavia as a result of the outbreak of war in the Balkans and the team now coached by Richard Møller Nielsen ensured the greatest success in Schmeichel's national team career with the surprising title win. His goalkeeping performance in the 2-0 final against the reigning world champion from Germany was considered outstanding. Previously, he had saved the Danish selection in the semifinals with his saves against the favorites from the Netherlands on penalties and there parried the decisive shot by Marco van Basten .

The subsequent qualification for the 1994 World Cup in the USA developed into a three-way battle with Spain and Ireland for Denmark , at the end of which again on the last day of the game for Schmeichel's men due to the 0-1 defeat in Spain (and the simultaneous Irish point gain in Northern Ireland) only the third place jumped out (which did not qualify for participation in the World Cup finals). In contrast, he managed to qualify for the Euro 1996 in his adopted country of England . There, however, Denmark failed as defending champions in the group stage with one win, one draw and one defeat (the point yield was the same as four years earlier, but an aggravating factor here was that the competitor Portugal in a long-distance duel against a B-Elf already for the KO games qualified selection from Croatia easily won). Two years later, Schmeichel competed with Denmark for the first and only time in a World Cup finals tournament . "Danish Dynamite" not only survived the group phase, but also defeated the secret favorite from Nigeria 4-1 in the round of 16 , before Brazil narrowly finished with 2: 3 among the last eight teams . His fourth and final European Championship was disappointing for Schmeichel and Denmark in 2000 as the bottom of the table in the group stage without a goal or points. He then completed five A-internationals and resigned as Danish goalkeeper after a 3-0 win against Slovenia on April 25, 2001.

Schmeichel guarded the goal of the Danish national team in a total of 129 A-internationals, although the world football association FIFA, unlike the Danish association, does not recognize the eight games for the Olympic selection as official A-internationals.

Second career on TV

After retiring in the summer of 2003, Schmeichel aspired to a TV career as a football expert and since 2004 he and his former colleagues Preben Elkjær Larsen and Brian Laudrup have presented the coverage of the UEFA Champions League on the Danish TV3 channel . Since then he has appeared on television in various formats, some of which have no relation to football. In February 2007, Schmeichel was the show master of the quiz program 1 mod 100 on TV3, the Danish version of 1 against 100 . Since 2008 he has also been the protagonist of the European edition of Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel .

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Schmeichel responds to Keane's statement in ITV documentary that they didn't get on at United and says the Irishman and Sir Alex are too similar for their own good" (Daily Mail)
  2. Peter Schmeichel and Egon Balsby: Schmeichel: The Autobiography . Virgin Publishing, London 2000, ISBN 0-7535-0444-8 , pp. 25-37 .
  3. "Peter SCHMEICHEL - Manchester United FC - Biography of his football career at Old Trafford." (Sporting Heroes)
  4. "Schmeichel eyes a champion's medal with no regrets" (The Guardian)
  5. Schmeichel throws down gloves (press release from RP-Online dated May 30, 2001)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rp-online.de  
  6. ^ "Villa clinch Schmeichel deal" (BBC Sport)
  7. Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2002/2003 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2002, ISBN 1-85291-648-6 , pp. 367 .
  8. Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2003/2004 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2003, ISBN 1-85291-651-6 , pp. 376 ff .
  9. ^ "Games of the XXIV. Olympiad" (RSSSF)
  10. "EM Heroes, Part II: 4th Part: 1992: Peter Schmeichel - a goalkeeper leads Denmark to victory" (Der SPIEGEL)
  11. "Schmeichel signs off" (BBC Sport)
  12. 1992 team of the tournament . In: Union of European Football Associations , October 17, 2011. Retrieved June 17, 2012.