Peter Schmeichel is widely considered to be the greatest goalkeeper in Premier League history. The Danish stopper not only excelled in every area a ‘keeper can be judged, he was also the type of character that drove his team-mates onto success.
Schmeichel was one of the key men in Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United team that dominated English football throughout the nineties, as well as being one of the stars in the Denmark team that caused one of football’s biggest upsets of all time by winning the European Championship in 1992.
Here are a collection of quotes about the Great Dane that show just how highly his peers rated him.
Here’s what they said about Peter Schmeichel:
โHe had everything. And he wanted to win. Every time.โย Michael Laudrup.
โGoalkeepers win you games sometimes, and Peter Schmeichel won more games than any other goalkeeper Iโve ever seen.โ Ryan Giggs.
โSimply one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. [ . . . ]ย There are goalkeepers with presence who arenโt much good, but Schmeichel had both presence and raw ability. He was a great shot-stopper and a fine taker of crosses, he read the game superbly, he commanded his box. There hasnโt been a better player in the Premiership.โ John Barnes.
โThe best ever. Peterโs charisma and character could change the game. His spirit spread to the rest of the team. Strong in the air, great reflexes and brilliant in one-on-ones. A true winner.โย Brian Laudrup.
โAn enormous presence in goal. Intimidated strikers with his size and ability. The best I goalkeeper I played against in England.โย Emmanuel Petit.
โHeโs the best goalkeeper the Premier League has ever seen because of what he did at Manchester United, the amount of points he saved them. He โ and Eric Cantona โ were a massive part of what they did when they first won the Premier League and in the years after.โ Matt Le Tissier.
โIโve been fortunate enough to play in front of great goalkeepers, but the one who had the most influence on me in my formative years at Man City was Schmeichel. He was a huge, huge influence around the dressing room. I remember being on the training ground and he wouldnโt let there be any balls in the back of the net. He was OCD about it. He would get really irate and frustrated because he said he wouldnโt have any balls in there on a Saturday so he wonโt have any in there during the week.โ Joey Barton.
โAwesome. Heโs one of those players you didnโt like facing, but loved having in your team. Peter just fills the goal. Thinking back to my first year at Man United, when I struggled, maybe I should have trained against the reserve keepers instead. Itโs so hard to score against him, psychologically it might have boosted my confidence to get away from him for a while!โ Teddy Sheringham.
โOf all the keepers I have played against, Peter was easily the best. Petr Cech is one of the best now, but Schmeichel was an all-round great. You canโt be a great by just being a good shot stopper, you have to have it all โ and he did.โ Micheal Owen.
โI donโt believe a better goalkeeper played the game. He is a giant figure in the history of Manchester United.โ Sir Alexย Ferguson.
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Remembering Peter Schmeichel’s greatest performance for Man United