Top 10 Interesting Facts about Peter Schmeichel

Peter Schmeichel_ photo by Carlsberg-Wikimedia

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Peter Schmeichel

Peter Boleslaw is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is best known for captaining Manchester United to victory in the 1999 UEFA Champions League final, to complete the Treble. 

He is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers of all time and was voted the IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper, in the year 1992,1993, and 2000. 

He is perhaps best known for his intimidating physique _ at 1.91m tall and weighing almost 100kgs. 

He is a fierce competitor and is notorious for his loud, unstinting criticism of perceived mistakes by his defenders. 

Here are the top 10 Interesting Facts about Peter Schmeichel.

1. He worked many odd jobs before being a footballer 

It’s very rare to find a football fan who has not heard of Peter Schmeichel, his fame and rich profile as a goalkeeper who despite many years of his absence on the football field still shines. 

Despite the glorious career he has built, Peter had to garner life experiences to shape the structure of his future and be he became the great footballer he is today, he had to work many other odd jobs. 

In his earlier life, before he came to a professional footballer, Schmeichel had to work several odd jobs to make ends meet. His very first job came in the dyeing department of the textile factory but he had to resign due to safety concerns. 

He ventured into his next job as a cleaner in an elderly home and spent 12 months working. He gained his first office job with the World Wildlife Fund and willed in the organization shop. 

With luck on his side, he was promoted to the position of sales manager just three weeks after he joined. 

His luck was cut short as he was called upon for three of his four weeks of compulsory military service. His military service days were in Hvidovre summer training camp in Portugal, where he was permitted to go on with the Proviso that he completed his military service the next month. 

He soon give up and got a job with his father in laws flooring firm but sadly realized that his knees couldn’t support a 95kg frame for eight hours a day. 

He was offered a job with an advertising firm owned by Hvidovres chairman, Niels Erick Madsen. This came to be his last odd job and he was offered a contract with Brandy the following spring.

2. His father-in-law was his first mentor

Everyone needs a road map and having a mentor or a coach makes the process simpler.  Schmeichel’s first team coach and mentor were  Svend Aage Hansen, who later became his father-in-law. 

Hansen was the person who promoted Schmeichel and six others from the youth club in Gladsaxe hero senior club. 

They were prepared for a youth match against IF Skjold Birkerod, but the team listed 1_0. Though they lost the match, Schmeichel captured the eyes of the media and received mentions in local newspapers for his brilliant performance. 

Hansen noticed the goalkeeper’s potential and made him spend more seasons with Gladsaxe _Hero BK. 

He later rolled onto Hvidovre and played for the Danish national team, it’s here his successful career bloomed and set the stage for his future career. 

In the season that followed, Gladsaxe _Hero needed to avoid defeat to Stubbekobing to prevent regulations from the Danish National league. 

It’s through this game that Schmeichel revealed his raw talent and depicted a character that garnered many fans, Gladsaxe’s hero won the match and Schmeichel played one of the best games of his career.

3. He was regarded as the world’s best goalkeeper in 1992

Kasper_Schmeichel_2021 photo by Антон Зайцев –Wikimedia

By 1992 Schmeichel had a presence on the international scene, and Manchester United signed him on 6^th 1991 for euro 505,5000, a price that was considered as the “bargain chip of the century”  

Though he gained fame in Denmark, Schmeichel had little presence outside the country, especially with the United squad members making him signed for a lower price than he deserved. 

In his first season, Manchester United finished as runner ups and won the Football League Cup for the first time in the clubs’ history. 

Schmeichel accumulated yet another badge of success and was elected “The best Goalkeeper of 1992” by IFFHS. 

Manchester won the premier league Championship in the 1992_93 season which was a result of 22 clean sheets from Schmeichel. 

This was a ground-breaking moment since it was the first time the club had won England’s top trophy in 26 years. In 1993, he was yet again named “The World’s best goalkeeper”. 

4. He was accused of being a racist 

In a match against Arsenal in November 1996, Schemer was accused of racism by Ian Wright a professional footballer. During the game, Schmeichel and Wright set on the wrong foot and couldn’t just synch with one another. 

At the end of the game, the two players confronted each other on the way to the pitch.  After the match, news emerged of a police inquiry into the incident, and allegations were made against Schmeichel for a racist remark he made. 

After months of investigations by the FA and the PFA, who needed a “converted” Schmeichel as their poster boy for the “kick Racism out of football campaign”. No evidence was ever found and the case was shut.

5. He won the 1999_2000 Premiere Liga title for Sporting Cup

Batistuta_vs_schmeichel Author Unknown-Wikimedia

Seeking a slower pace of football, Schmeichel decided to leave English football at the end of the 1998 _99 end season. At that time Peter was just 36 years of age and he realized his body couldn’t keep up with the fast-playing league he decided to join Sporting CP, for a two-year contract. 

In his first season, he helped the team claim the Premiere Liga title after 14 long years.  In the next season, his team finished second in the league and it was also the first time in 14 years since the team had finished second in the league. 

At the end of the contract, Peter decided not to extend the contract any further and left the club. 

6. He was considered the greatest Denmark goalkeeper 

Schmeichel made his debut for Denmark’s national football team in May 1987, under national manager Sepp Piontek and he was selected for the UEFA Euro,1988, where he was made Denmark’s starting goalkeeper. 

He made a string of significant saves during the tournament in the Euro 92 tournament, which went on to win. 

He kept a clean sheet in Denmark’s opening 0_0 draw against England and resulted in decisive stops against Eric Cantona and Jean Pierre Papin in a 2_1 win over France. He scored his only goal for the Danish national team, which was a penalty kick. 

7. His father was a double agent during the cold war 

The Manchester United legend, Peter Schmeichel revealed on BBC Radio 4 on the editions of Desert Island Disc, how his father was blackmailed into becoming a double agent at the height of the cold war. 

His father Antoni Tolek Schmeichel married Inger, a Danish nurse, and wished to start a new life in her native Denmark in the 1960s. 

His wish was short-lived as he was given a condition for living in Denmark, he had to agree to operate as a spy for the then-Communist Polish government. 

Schmeichel narrates how the condition for leaving Poland, which was presented to his father, shook the core of his father’s moral beliefs, though he didn’t desire to do it, he had to oblige if he wanted to leave Poland, so he agreed and was sent out to Denmark via Berlin. 

Tolek upon arriving in Denmark in 1961 gave himself up to the authorities to be with his pregnant wife. He hoped that would be the end of his ordeal, but instead the Danish government assigned him to be a double agent.

His father became a Danish citizen in 1970 and died aged 85 but his mother Inger was blessed to be still living and resides in Copenhagen.

8. He was bashed for partaking in sport washing 

Vladimir_Putin’s_meeting_with_the_legends_of_world_football_(2018-07-06)_06 photo by ресс-служба-Wikimedia

Schmeichel hosted a series of programs in 2008, produced by the state-owned Russian television station RT. 

They took the method of a mixture of football and travel reports on the occasion of the World Cup in football into the country. 

This didn’t sit well with many football fans and he was dealt with criticism from all around the globe for participating in sports washing, by receiving money from Putin Russia, and the desert state Qatar. 

The criticism was further fuelled by his support for the unpopular FIFA proposal that the world cup is held every two years.

9. He was divorced twice 

Peter Schmeichel was married to his first wife Bente, but their love story crumbled in 2014 as the couple divorced. 

A year after his divorce, Schmeichel began the next chapter of his life and started a relationship with Laura Von Lindholm but sadly that didn’t last long as they soon separated in 2017, just after three years. 

Love is a spiral of complications and the couple patched things up and he tied the knot, with Laura Lindholm at a small family wedding celebration in Denmark. 

Laura is a nutritionist, and also works as an actor she has also appeared on the cover of one of the US magazines, playboy.

10. His son surpassed his legend 

Kasper_Schmeichel_Bury photo by Ingy The Wingy-Wikimedia

Every football fan is familiar with the name Kasper Schmeichel, the current goalkeeper of Leicester City. Leicester is the son of the former legend goalkeeper, Schmeichel. 

Leicester followed his father’s footsteps, perhaps even surpassing him, he was selected for the Danish squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, where he started in three group-stage matches. 

His clean sheet in the opening match contributed to a man of the match award and it assisted him in accomplishing a new record, four minutes without conceding a goal for Denmark, surpassing his father’s record.