Gary Newbon: Super Schmeichels were KEEPING it in the family

Yahoo

6 hours ago

Often, sons of established footballers prove to be better players and careers on the field than their fathers. Harry Redknapp and Jamie; Frank Lampard senior and Frank junior; and Brian Clough and Nigel. Those are three examples that spring to mind.
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Peter Schmeichel and his son Kasper are closer in comparison. Peter is arguably the best ever seen in England's top division. But both Peter and Kasper were and are goalkeepers. Both won the Premier League and the FA Cup. Both played for Denmark.
However, Peter's medal haul was far bigger.
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I covered or attended many of their matches and admired their abilities. I interviewed Peter many times for ITV and Kasper quite a few for both ITV and Sky.
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For a while, Kasper lived in the same road as myself.
Peter, who is now 61, played for eight years for Manchester United, winning 15 trophies. He was a major star in the club's greatest years under Sir Alex Ferguson.
The trophies included five Premier League titles; three FA Cups, a Football League Cup and he captained United when they won the 1999 European Champions League to complete that season's treble of League, Cup and Champions League.
Many think this 6ft 4ins and nearly 16 stone Dane is the greatest goalkeeper of all time. He has been voted that and was among the top ten goalkeepers of the 20th Century by another respected organisation.
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He played an incredible 129 times for Denmark, which was a record until 2023.
Denmark were the late replacements for the final stages of the 1992 European Championships in Sweden and, with Peter in their team, they went on to win the tournament. He played in three more Euros and the 1998 World Cup.
Schmeichel played for three Danish clubs before commencing his wonderful career at Manchester United.
In the five seasons that he played for Brondby, they won the Danish First Division four times.
They reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup with Schmeichel playing a key role, keeping seven clean sheets.
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They lost that semi-final 2-1 away to Roma with the German Rudi Voller scoring a last-minute winner.
Manchester United then paid £500,000 to sign Schmeichel on August 6, 1991, with Sir Alex describing it as 'the bargain of the century' and so it proved.
In Peter's first season, United finished runners-up in the league and won the Football League Cup.
He was already drawing rave reports being rated as the best goalkeeper in the game.
Peter then kept 22 clean sheets in the 1992-93 season as United won the Premier League and, by doing so, won the England's top domestic trophy for the first time in 26 years with Schmeichel again being named as he world's best goalkeeper.
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Schmeichel, quick to shout at his defenders, when he felt necessary, was involved in some incidents – including a row with Ferguson, which was healed. In his last season at United – the treble – he saved a penalty from Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp in the FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park to send the game into extra time with United eventually winning 2-1, thanks to one of the great individual goals scored by Ryan Giggs.
The United captain Roy Keane picked up a suspension in the European Champions League semi-final 3-2 win in Turin over Juventus The first leg at Old Trafford was 1-1.
Keane had been the outstanding player in Turin and had scored United's first goal.
As a result of his yellow card, he missed the final and so Schmeichel captained to climax a great career at United.
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He went on to play for Sporting CP, Aston Villa and Manchester City – in total, playing 748 first team games and he actually scored 10 goals.
Peter's son Kasper also played a few games with Manchester City – his first club who he joined in 2006 and stayed with them until 2009.
During this time, Kasper, now 38 and with Scottish champions Celtic, went on loan to five clubs on loan (Darlington, Bury, Falkirk, Cardiff and Coventry) before joining Notts County by his old Manchester City boss Sven Goran-Eriksson, who was then County's director of football.
After Kasper played for Leeds, Eriksson signed him again – this time for Leicester City which is the highlight of Kasper's career to date.
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During his 11 years with the Foxes – 2011-2022 – Kasper won the Premier League (2015-16) for the only time in their history and captained Leicester when they won the FA Cup in 2021 – again the only time in the club's history.
Youri Tielemans scored he only goal with a wonder strike, but Schmeichel made some superb saves to stop Chelsea equalising.
So dad Peter was presented with the Champions League trophy in Barcelona and years later Kasper took the FA Cup at Wembley. Father and son trophy captains!
Kasper went on to play for the French club Nice, then the Belgians Anderlecht before joining Celtic last year where he has already won the Scottish Premiership and the Scottish League Cup.
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Add runners-up in the FA Scottish Cup. He has had his contract extended by Celtic until 2026. His present manager Brendan Rodgers was his manager at Leicester as well.
Kasper has already played 113 times for Denmark and has played in the final stages of two Worlds Cups – 2018 and 2022 and two Euros-2020 and 2024.
Kasper is still very much active and has to date played in 779 first team games – ahead of Peter on that mark!
Tuesday brings my sports comment column in both the Birmingham Mail and Coventry Telegraph in association with Utilita Energy as well as online.