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Out of the shadows: Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel wants to be known for his achievements not for being the son of Manchester United icon Peter &Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The Schmeichel name will be in the
again this weekend, but it has been a long five-year route
back for &s goalkeeper.
Kasper Schmeichel has undoubtedly established his own reputation, but has had
to contend with the comparisons with his father Peter since his emergence as
a teenager at . Those comparisons are certain to become even more prominent
this season on a grander stage & and you get the sense the family name has
hung heavily on his shoulders.
&It&s definitely not been a help. It would have been easier to play a
different sport. It&s quite boring really, probably because I&ve had it all
my life. That&s my surname and the way it goes,& he says, shrugging his
shoulders.
&If people think it&s exciting then more power to them but to me it means
nothing at all.
&My dad had a great career and, if I win a tenth of what he won, I&ll be
happy, but it was a long time ago. I&m 27 years old, I&ve got two kids and
I&m not a kid any more. I&ve got my own career and I&m looking forward to
being back in the Premier League.&
It is the only subject during our entertaining and absorbing 25-minute
conversation that turns his mood dark.
His reluctance to discuss his father is understandable, for he has clearly
forged his own career since those early days watching Peter train at &s old Cliff training ground.
After joining Leicester in 2011, he has been an ever-present in the league for
the last three seasons and kept 18 clean sheets in the title-winning
campaign. He received numerous offers from clubs across Europe before
signing a new deal in June.
He has also impressed for the Denmark national team, most notably in the
friendly against England in March which earned him a hero-gram from .
But it has been a long and tortuous route back to the top flight since his
decision to quit Manchester City.
From the chaos at
during the murky Munto Finance takeover, to an excruciating
and then finally achieving promotion with Leicester,
Schmeichel has had to be patient.
Those frustrating days at City, when he grew increasingly exasperated over his
struggles to secure a first-team place, will seem a long time ago when he
faces Everton tomorrow.
&I&ve been working a long time to get back to this level,& he says. &I was
only 20 when I first played for City and it was a whirlwind. We won a
Manchester derby, I saved a penalty at
and you don&t really think about how big those things are until later in
your career.
&I had some tough choices at the time. Shay Given was playing, Harty [Joe
Hart] was on the bench and City weren&t really allowing me out on loan. I
was nowhere near the finished article and made mistakes but I wasn&t costing
them goals and didn&t think not playing was justified.
&I turned down four contracts at City because I wanted to play. My only real
option was to go to Notts County.&
It was Sven-Goran Eriksson who convinced him to move down to League Two five
years ago, yet it soon became clear all was not what it seemed.
Munto Finance had grandiose plans of reaching the top tier in five years but
it proved a farce after months of broken promises from mysterious owners,
eventually resulting in huge financial issues.
&It was crazy, there were all sorts of things happening every day,& he says.
&I didn&t get paid for seven months but it didn&t matter to me because I was
playing. I wasn&t the only one not getting paid but we were still focused
and got promoted. The team spirit and togetherness at Notts County reminds
me of what we have here at Leicester.&
Schmeichel could not be more settled now, living in Birmingham with partner
Stine and children Max and Isabella. He is fully refreshed after making two
summer trips to Thailand to meet the club&s owners, plus a return to
He was an avid watcher of the World Cup and speaks of Germany&s Manuel Neuer
in reverential tones as the best goalkeeper in the world. He is also
intrigued by the battles to be No&1 at Chelsea and City, which he believes
are unworkable.
&It&s not healthy to have two No&1s. You want to know you&ve got the backing
of the manager. Every goalkeeper wants to be No&1 but at the same time it&s
about getting that support.
&With [Thibaut] Courtois and [Petr] Cech you&ve got two of the best
goalkeepers in the world and on Monday one of them is going to be unhappy.
That&s not going to be healthy.&
Schmeichel will face either Courtois or Cech next weekend at Stamford Bridge
but he is only concerned about seizing his own chance, with his last
top-flight appearance for City in November 2008.
Everton, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United represent a daunting start in
four of the opening five games but Schmeichel is unfazed. &We&re not here
just to survive, we want to establish ourselves as a Premier League club,&
he said. &The owners have backed us to the hilt and we&re not here to make
up the numbers.
&We&ve got a lot of good young players who I&m really looking forward to
seeing at this level. Our manager [Nigel Pearson] is also unbelievably
underrated, his man-management is outstanding and he&s the best I&ve ever
worked under. He&s also a million miles away from the persona you media guys
&For me, I&ve had Premier League football before and had it taken away so I&m
going to take this opportunity. I want to keep going for another 15 years if
There is another burning ambition to fulfil. &I want to score this season
because the goal-line technology will be better than the Championship,& he
says, almost ruefully.
&I scored against Yeovil last season but for some reason it was taken away
from me by the panel. I&ve seen the replay loads of times, my header clearly
went over the line before Chris Wood put it in. If there&s an opportunity to
score this season, I would like to try and take it.&
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