Football Player's Biography 7: Kasper Schmeichel

Full name	Kasper Peter Schmeichel
Date of birth	5 November 1986 (1986-11-05) (age 24)
Place of birth	Copenhagen, Denmark
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper

Kasper Peter Schmeichel (born 5 November 1986 in Copenhagen) is a Danish professional football goalkeeper, and son of Peter Schmeichel. He played 17 games for the Denmark under-21 national team and joined Leeds United on 1 July 2010.
Schmeichel began his career with Manchester City, but he had loan spells with Darlington, Bury and Falkirk before he made his City debut. Although Schmeichel appeared to have made the City #1 jersey his own at the start of the 2007–08 season, the emergence of Joe Hart resulted in Schmeichel being loaned to Cardiff City. He expressed an interest in remaining with Cardiff, but the departure of Andreas Isaksson meant that Schmeichel was recalled from his loan spell. The signing of Republic of Ireland international Shay Given in January 2009 meant that Schmeichel fell even further down the pecking order at City, and in August 2009, he was allowed to link up with former manager Sven-Göran Eriksson at Notts County.

Club career

Manchester City

Schmeichel joined Manchester City in 2002 on a long-term contract.^[1] He joined League Two side Darlington on a loan deal in January 2006,^[2] where he made his professional first team debut against Peterborough United at the 96.6 TFM Arena on 14 January 2006. Darlington won the game 2–1, with Schmeichel conceding a goal to Peterborough striker James Quinn.^[3] He gained his first clean sheet three days later against Grimsby Town. He made two further appearances before returning to Manchester City.
One month after returning to Manchester City he was loaned out again, this time to Bury in February,^[4] where he made 15 appearances in a three-month loan spell. He returned to Bury for a further three months the following season.^[5]
Schmeichel joined Scottish Premier League side Falkirk on loan from January 2007 until the end of the 2006–07 season.^[6] He was named man of the match against Rangers on 18 February 2007. He revealed in May he would have liked his loan at Falkirk extended and Falkirk expressed an interest in signing him.^[7]^[8]
Schmeichel made his Manchester City debut against West Ham United in August 2007.^[9] He played against City's rivals and his boyhood team Manchester United on the 19 August 2007 and kept a clean sheet in City's 1–0 home win.^[10] Schmeichel saved a penalty from Arsenal's Robin van Persie on 25 August 2007 at the Emirates Stadium. Despite City losing 1–0 to Arsenal he was named man of the match. He played the first seven of Manchester City's games in the 2007–08 Premier League season, keeping clean sheets against Manchester United, West Ham, Aston Villa and Derby County conceding only five goals.^[11]
He signed a new four-year deal with City in September 2007.^[12] This was then followed up with an agreement to go on a one-month loan with Championship side Cardiff City on 25 October 2007.^[13] He made his debut for Cardiff on 27 October 2007 in a 1–1 draw with Scunthorpe United.^[14] He was named 2007 Danish under-21 Talent of the Year.^[15]
Towards the end of the loan spell Schmeichel requested that he would be allowed to stay on at Cardiff for a longer period and on 22 November the loan spell was extended until the new year with manager Sven-Göran Eriksson stating that he could possibly stay at the club for the rest of the season providing Manchester City do not suffer an injury crisis.^[16] However, after Eriksson named Joe Hart as the number one goalkeeper at Manchester City, Andreas Isaksson requested a transfer. This meant that Eriksson would not allow Cardiff to keep Schmeichel after his initial loan period ended on the 2 January.^[17] On 31 December Eriksson threw Cardiff a lifeline by opening talks for Schmeichel to stay at Ninian Park. Schmeichel would be allowed to stay for two more matches should Andreas Isaksson not move until late in the January transfer window. Schmeichel had stated he would like to play for Cardiff again in the future.^[18]^[19] However, Schmeichel returned to Eastlands the day after his initial loan expired.^[20]
He joined Coventry City on loan until the end of the season on 13 March.^[21] Towards the end of the season his father, Peter Schmeichel, commented during a TV interview that his son was not happy at Manchester City and was set to leave following the end of the season.^[22]
Despite wanting to leave, Schmeichel returned to the City of Manchester Stadium at the end of the season and changed to the number 16 shirt. He repeatedly stated that he wanted to leave City and regretted signing a four year contract.^[23]
On 16 November, Schmeichel entered a game as a substitute after Joe Hart injured his ankle in the 14th minute. City went on to a 2–2 result with Hull City.^[24] In December 2008, Schmeichel played his last game for Manchester City in the UEFA Cup against Racing Santander.^[25] On 4 January 2009, he stated in the Daily Mail newspaper that he was ready to quit the football club after falling down the pecking order at Eastlands Stadium.^[26]

Notts County

On 14 August 2009, Schmeichel signed for Football League Two side Notts County in a deal that is believed to have broken the club's previous transfer record. The transfer reunited Schmeichel with his former Manchester City manager, Sven-Göran Eriksson, who had recently been appointed Director of Football at Notts County.^[27] He was the highest paid player at the club, being paid 1 million pounds annually.^[28] He made his debut on 22 August and kept a clean sheet in the side's 3–0 win against Dagenham & Redbridge. In September 2009 Schmeichel almost scored with an audacious overhead kick against Morecambe when he came up from a corner late on in the game.^[29]
A fine string of performances in October earned Schmeichel the Player of the Month.^[30] During Schmeichel's stay at The Magpies, the club conceded only 0.67 goals per League 2 match (29 goals conceded in 43 league appearances). Schmeichel's clean-sheets-to-game-ratio at Notts County was an impressive 55.8 percent (24 out of 43 league appearances).^[31] On 27 April, Schmeichel and Notts County secured the 2009–10 League Two trophy and promotion for the Football League One with a 5–0 win against already relegated Darlington.^[32]^[33] Shortly before the game, it was announced that Notts County agreed to release Schmeichel at the end of the season despite having four years left on his contract. The reasoning behind this was financial; with Schmeichel earning a reported £15,000 a week having been signed during the brief ownership period of high-spending Munto Finance in the summer 2009. Schmeichel agreed to forgo all his future wages – something which chairman Ray Trew described as "a huge concession by such a young man".^[34]

Leeds United

On 27 May 2010, having been linked with both Premiership and Bundesliga clubs, Schmeichel signed a two year contract with Leeds United. He joined the club on 1 July 2010.^[35] In the 2010–11 squad number announcement Schmeichel was given the number 1 shirt at Leeds. After much speculation during the pre-season over who would be Leeds' first choice goalkeeper for the forthcoming season, it was Schmeichel who was given the nod ahead of Shane Higgs. He made his debut for the club on Saturday 7 August 2010 in Leeds United's opening Football League Championship match against Derby County. Despite Leeds losing 2–1, Schmeichel put in an impressive performance, making several crucial saves during the match.^[36] After a string of impressive games for Leeds, Schmeichel was nominated for the August Championship Player of the month award but lost out to Q.P.R winger Adel Taarabt.^[37]
After picking up a tendon injury in his foot, Schmeichel missed the game against Swansea City and was ruled out of Leeds' next few games.^[38] Whilst out injured Schmeichel appeared on Soccer AM as one of the guests on the show.^[39] After just under two months out, Schmeichel returned to the Leeds starting line-up against Cardiff City. Schmeichel was set to play against Coventry City on 6 November, but due to the birth of his first child the night before, he missed the game.^[40]
On 8 January 2011 Schmeichel helped Leeds earn a 1–1 draw against Arsenal in the FA Cup Third Round match at the Emirates Stadium.^[41] After the match, Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas commented that Schmeichel should have received the match ball for his performance.^[42] Although Leeds lost the replay 3–1, Schmeichel produced another impressive display (nearly scoring himself via a header) and he was subsequently named player of the FA Cup Third Round.^[43]

International career

While at Manchester City, Kasper Schmeichel was called up for the Danish under-19 national team in August 2004,^[44] and made his international debut in a 0–0 draw with Northern Ireland on 2 September 2004.^[45] He went on to play eight under-19 internationals until March 2005, competing with Kenneth Stenild and Michael Tørnes for the goalkeeping spot. He was called up for the under-20 team in October 2005,^[46] but did not play for the team until October 2006, during his time at Bury.^[47] The day after his under-20 debut, Schmeichel was asked to train with the senior Denmark national football team and was called up as a replacement for injured Theis Rasmussen in the Danish under-21 national team squad.

He was one of the leading players in the team, and was named Danish under-21 Talent of the Year in November 2007, following three clean sheets in the previous four under-21 games.^[15] He played a total 17 under-21 internationals in a row from March 2007 to October 2008, racking up seven clean sheets.
Following his strong showings for Manchester City in the early 2007–08 season, it was reported on 23 August 2007 that The Football Association were investigating Schmeichel's international status, to see if there was any chance of him foregoing his Danish international status in order to play for the England national football team;^[49] Schmeichel stated that he would only ever play for Denmark.^[50] Former Notts County manager Hans Backe praised Schmeichel and said he should earn a call up to the full Danish national side.^[25]
In December 2010, Schmeichel stated that he was hoping to impress Danish national coach Morten Olsen after his impressive form for Leeds.^[51]
In January 2011, following Schmeichel's impressive performance in the FA Cup against Arsenal, several media pundits and experts in the Danish media started a debate on who will become the future no 1 goalkeeper on the Danish national team. The experts including Danish national under 21 team coach Keld Bordinggaard made comparisons between the newly signed Manchester United keeper Anders Lindegaard and Schmeichel, stating that the two are on approximately the same level

Personal life

Schmeichel is the son of former Denmark international and Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, who finished his career with Manchester City. Kasper spent most of his childhood living in England, due to his father's playing career, and speaks with an English accent. He attended Hulme Hall school in Cheadle and he also attended at Saint Julian's School in Portugal while his father played in Sporting Clube de Portugal. When Alex Bruce joined Kasper at Leeds United, the move saw the two players re-unite after both previously played football together on the streets as children after school.^[54]