Peter Schmeichel

Peter Bolesław Schmeichel is a retired footballer from Denmark. He was born in 1963 and began to play football at the local club Høje-Gladsaxe. Then he joined the youth system Hero, which then became Gladsaxe-Hero, and after graduating he was promoted to the first team. Between 1984 and 1987 he stayed with Hvidovre and then gave a start to his professional playing career joining Brøndby. There he played until 1991 and throughout that period Brøndby was thrice crowned Danish champion in 1987, 1988 and 1990. In 1989 they won Danish Cup and in 1991 they won Danish Superliga. He had a prolific period with the club and the IFFHS named Schmeichel the World’s Best Goalkeeper in 1991.

After that he moved to Manchester United for a fee of £505,000. Peter Schmeichel spent eight years with Manchester United and helped his side to win Premier League titles in 1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96, 1996/97 and 1998/99. They won three FA Cup trophies, in 1991/92 they were Football League Cup winners. In 1991 Manchester United won UEFA Super Cup and in 1998/99 they claimed UEFA Champions League victory. Schmeichel proved himself one of United’s best keepers.

At the age of 36 he left England and signed for Sporting CP after the end of the 1998/99 season. There he played until the summer of 2001 and then had a season at Aston Villa, after which he played for Manchester City the last year of his playing career.

Schmeichel retired in 2002 and has worked on TV, being a pundit for the BBC, hosted live matches on the Danish TV channel, he was the host of Dirty Jobs on Discovery and had other activities.

Between 1987 and 2001 the son of Polish father and Danish mother earned 129 caps for the Denmark national team.