Kasper Schmeichel

Kasper Schmeichel is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Leicester City and the Denmark national team. He is the son of former Manchester United and Danish international goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. Schmeichel began his career with Manchester City, but he had loan spells with Darlington, Bury and Falkirk before he made his Manchester City debut. Although Schmeichel appeared to have made the City number 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. 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 spent only one season with the Magpies as, while it was a very successful one for the club and the player himself, changes to the club's financial position made his departure necessary and his contract was terminated by mutual consent. He joined Leeds United in May 2010, his tenure at the club would only last one season before he was the subject of a transfer to Leicester City, where he would again work under Eriksson. Schmeichel has gone on to play over 300 competitive games for Leicester, winning the Championship in the 2013-14 season and the Premier League in 2015-16. He played 17 games for the Denmark national under-21 team. Schmeichel was called up to the Denmark national team for the first time against Iceland on 13 May 2011, and was part of their squad at UEFA Euro 2012, but did not make his senior debut until 2013. On 15 October 2013, Schmeichel had his first ever senior level game in his native Denmark, when he held an easy clean sheet in Denmark's 6-0 win against Malta in the last 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier. On 5 March 2014, Schmeichel received his third cap for Denmark in their 1-0 friendly defeat against England at Wembley Stadium. Despite defeat, Schmeichel pulled off a string of impressive saves earning plaudits from the media as well as England manager Roy Hodgson. Schmeichel was selected for the Danish squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, where he started in three group stage matches. His clean sheet in the opening match contributed to a Man of the Match award and helped Schmeichel set a new record for minutes without conceding a goal for Denmark, surpassing his father's record. During the Round of 16 match against Croatia, Schmeichel was named Man of the Match after saving a penalty-kick taken by Luka Modric in extra-time and two penalties during the subsequent shootout, although his opposing counterpart Danijel Subasic saved three penalties in that shootout to eliminate Denmark.