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Kasper Schmeichel

Personal information
Full name	Kasper Peter Schmeichel
Date of birth	5 November 1986 (1986-11-05) (age 23)
Place of birth	Copenhagen, Denmark
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Notts County
Number	23
Youth career
2002–2003	Manchester City
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2003–2009	Manchester City	8	(0)
2006	→ Darlington (loan)	4	(0)
2006	→ Bury (loan)	15	(0)
2006	→ Bury (loan)	14	(0)
2007	→ Falkirk (loan)	15	(0)
2007–2008	→ Cardiff City (loan)	14	(0)
2008	→ Coventry City (loan)	9	(0)
2009–	Notts County	19	(0)
National team‡
2004–2005	Denmark U19	8	(0)
2006	Denmark U20	1	(0)
2007–2008	Denmark U21	17	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 13:52, 13 November 2009 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 08:53, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Kasper Peter Schmeichel (born 5 November 1986 in Copenhagen) is a Danish professional football player, who plays as a goalkeeper for Notts County. He has played 17 games for the Denmark under-21 national team.

Early Life

Schmeichel began his career with Manchester City, for whom his father, Peter Schmeichel, was playing at the time, 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. He attended Hulme Hall school in Cheadle, along with Alex Bruce, son of Steve Bruce.

Club career

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. 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, conceding only five goals.^[11]

Breakthrough at Manchester City

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 since stated he would like to play for Cardiff again in the future.^[18][19] On 3 January 2008, Schmeichel returned to Manchester City.^[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 is 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 regreted 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] On 4 January 2009, he stated in the Daily Mail newspaper that he is ready to quit the football club after falling down the pecking order at Eastlands Stadium.^[25]

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.^[26] He made his debut on 22 August and kept a clean sheet in the side's 3–0 win against Dagenham & Redbridge. He had become an instant crowd favourite after attempting a scissor kick in the last minute against Morecambe, which almost resulted in a goal.

International career

On 23 August 2007, it was reported that The Football Association were investigating Schmeichel's international status, to see if there was any chance of him forsaking Denmark, for whom he had already played multiple youth matches, in order to play for the England national football team.^[27] However, Schmeichel stated that he would only ever play for Denmark.^[28]

Personal life

Schmeichel is the son of former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, who finished his career with Manchester City. Schmeichel spent most of his childhood living in England, due to his father's playing career, and speaks with an English accent. Schmeichel speaks fluent Danish, English and Portuguese.

References

External links

• Kasper Schmeichel career stats at Soccerbase
• Danish national team profile
• Manchester City F.C. profile