The Best Footballers

Peter Bolesław Schmeichel MBE, born 18 November 1963 in Gladsaxe, Denmark) is a retired Danish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and was voted the “World’s Best Goalkeeper” in 1992 and 1993. He experienced his most successful years playing for English club Manchester United, with whom he won the 1999 UEFA Champions League to complete The Treble. He was a key member of the Denmark national football team which won the 1992 European Championship (Euro 92) tournament.

Schmeichel is famous for his intimidating physique (he wears an XXXL shirt and stands 6′4″ tall) and his attacking threat. Throughout his career, Schmeichel scored 11 goals, a great feat for a keeper. He is the most capped player for the Denmark national team, with 129 games and one goal between 1987 and 2001. Apart from Euro 92, he played for his country at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and three additional European Championship tournaments. He captained the national team in 30 matches.

Today, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of football. The IFFHS ranked Schmeichel as the third best keeper of the 20th century in 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. In 2003, Schmeichel was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his impact on the English game. In March 2004, he was named as one of the “125 greatest living footballers”, at the FIFA 100 celebrations.He holds the record for the greatest clean sheets-to-games ratio in the Premiership with 42% of the games he played in the Premiership ending without his team conceding.

His son, Kasper Schmeichel, is currently playing for Manchester City.

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 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 made his debut for the Denmark national under-21 football team in May 1984. He worked as a carpet fitter before becoming a professional footballer. In February 2007 he became the host in a new quiz, on TV3 named 1 mod 100 (the Danish version of 1 vs. 100). He is a pundit for TV3 Denmark’s coverage of UEFA Champions League football. He and his wife currently resides in Espergærde, Denmark.In December 1999, Schmeichel became the club owner of his childhood club Hvidovre IF. He withdrew from the club in June 2002. He has worked as a pundit for the BBC since then, a frequent studio pundit when Manchester Utd are playing. He began hosting live UEFA Champions League-matches at Danish television channel TV3+, with Preben Elkjær and Brian Laudrup the studio pundits. However, he is working again as a pundit for the BBC in the English FA Cup Third Round match between two of his former clubs, Manchester United and Aston Villa alongside host Gary Lineker, and pundits Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer.

He has a son, Kasper, 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 on loan at League 2 side Darlington in 2005.His popularity in Britain is perhaps best measured by Chesney Battersby-Brown on the soap Coronation Street naming his former dog (a Great Dane) “Schmeichel”.

He also took part in Soccer Aid, and played for the Rest of the World team, who lost 2-1 after he was substituted at half-time. Schmeichel was a contestant on the 2006 series of the BBC’s popular Saturday night TV programme Strictly Come Dancing, but was voted out by the public on his 43rd birthday. He recently appeared on The Weakest Link in the UK, but he was voted off as the weakest link in the first round.

On August 31, 2007, an investor group including Schmeichel announced their intention to invest 250 million DKK (33.5 million €) in the football club Brøndby IF and make Peter Schmeichel sports director. This was announced in a press conference in Danish at a hotel in Copenhagen. This decision is a result of the major crisis that the club Schmeichel made his breakthrough with is in. The offer fell to the ground when Brøndby failed to accept the offer within the group’s deadline.

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