Peter Schmeichel turns 60 today. Some players are easy to imagine growing old. Steve Bruce looked like he was nearing 60 even while captaining Manchester United. James Milner’s boyish looks aside, he has always carried the air of a man waiting to get the game out of the way so he can curl up with a good book. But Schmeichel just doesn’t feel like a personality who can be 60. All that rage, the flushed nose and the popping veins. As demanding a figure as football has ever had and yet he is now able to apply for a free bus pass.
Not that you’d tell him that. The towering Dane still looks every inch of his reported 6’4. He can still glower with the best of them too. Just look what happens when a fellow pundit bravely disagrees with him during one of his television guest spots. But this is a man who has sired a Premier League champion of his own. The fact Kasper Schmeichel is a 37-year-old veteran and not the small child who used to warm up with his Dad at Old Trafford makes those of us who remember the latter’s hair turn grey. Or it would, if I still had any.
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Goalkeepers have come and gone in the Premier League. Icons like Petr Cech, Jens Lehmann, Pepe Reina, Ederson and Alisson have moved the artform on over the years. But Schmeichel led the pack along with players like David Seaman and David James at the dawn of the Premier League. And boy, English football had never seen anything like him.
Arriving from Danish side Brondby in 1991 for £505,000, that meagre fee would later be described by manager Sir Alex Ferguson as “bargain of the century”. Schmeichel didn’t waste any time making a name for himself in English football. While the Red Devils fell short of Leeds United in their race for the final top flight First Division title that season, the great Dane impressed as they came second and lifted the League Cup.
That summer, Schmeichel made himself an icon in his home nation. Denmark upset the odds to win Euro 92, with the goalkeeper leading the charge. His save to deny Marco van Basten in the semi-final penalty shootout win over the Netherlands was pivotal. In the final, he entered a spectacular display to keep a clean sheet in a 2-0 win over Germany.
The following season, Schmeichel kept 22 clean sheets as United picked up the inaugural Premier League title. The dawn of a new era in English football had its defining custodian. While Eric Cantona was the enigmatic icon spearheading the Red Devils’ attack, Schmeichel was the dominant presence cajoling all around him while delivering unbelievable saves.
Schmeichel’s abrasive style carried on off the field too. A 1994 bust-up with Sir Alex had the Scotsman later admitting he considered selling Schmeichel. But the goalkeeper apologised when he’d cooled down and the United juggernaut continued to mould 90s football in their own image.
The trophies kept coming, as did the flashpoints. A few Premier League and FA Cup trophies here, a rumble with Ian Wright or a training ground bust-up with Roy Keane there. But that competitive edge and a team with multiple leaders is arguably what Manchester United have been missing over the last decade. Schmeichel was a difficult character, it made him unpopular in some quarters, but it helped make him a success.
Schmeichel’s ultimate success came in his final Manchester United season. The veteran helped his team lift the historic first treble by an English club. United won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in the 1998/99 campaign. Schmeichel’s cartwheel as the win at the Nou Camp over Bayern Munich was confirmed would live long in the memory. It wouldn’t be his last gymnastic manoeuvre representing a Manchester club…
Schmeichel left United at the end of the season and, at the age of 36, appeared to be winding down his storied career. Leaving the English game behind citing a need for a slower pace of football, he arrived at Sporting CP in Portugal. A league title followed, as they inevitably did for Schmeichel. But the following year Sporting dropped off, finishing outside the top two for the first time in 14 years. Schmeichel left at the end of his contract, surprising many by returning to England.
Schmeichel signed for Aston Villa, with his spell in the Midlands perhaps best remembered for his goal in a 3-2 defeat to Everton. Schmeichel became the first goalkeeper ever to score a Premier League goal. Schmeichel left in the summer, after new manager Graham Taylor preferred Peter Enckelman to the Dane in goal.
Schmeichel’s next move would send shockwaves across Manchester. Kevin Keegan signed the player for Manchester City on a free transfer. It was a move many devoted Reds have never forgiven him for. While he has never plumbed the depths of United-turned-City stars like Carlos Tevez in the court of fan opinion, Schmeichel did stoke the flames at times. City won at Maine Road and drew at Old Trafford during his single season there. This meant Schmeichel was unbeaten throughout his career in Manchester derbies. While the legendary keeper was just doing his job, a cartwheel in front of the United support turned many match-going reds against him.
Schmeichel retired at the end of the 2002/03 season. He has rightly gone down as a Premier League legend. The first superstar goalkeeper the fledgling division ever produced. He is not remembered as warmly as he could be by United fans. There seems to be a split between matchgoing supporters who cannot forgive the City denouement and fans who perhaps consumed his career from afar and are less ingrained in the cross-Manchester rivalry. But one thing is for sure, no matter what you thought of Schmeichel, nobody who saw him play will ever forget him.
