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Fullname: Kasper Peter Schmeichel
aka: Kasper Schmeichel
Born: 5 November 1986
Birthplace: Copenhagen, Denmark
Signed: 18 July 2024 (free)
Left: –
Position: Goalkeeper
Debut: Celtic 4-0 Kilmarnock, SP, 2024-08-04
Squad No.: 1
Internationals: Denmark
International Caps: [TBC at end of career]
International Goals: [TBC at end of career]
Biog
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Quotes
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Playing Career
[Table to indicate clubs played for, including dates, transfers and fees where known [e.g. soccerbase table]]
| APPEARANCES (subs) |
LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 2024-25 | |||||
| Goals | |||||
| 2025-26 | |||||
| Goals | |||||
| 2026-27 | |||||
| Goals | |||||
| 2027-28 | |||||
| Goals | |||||
| Total | |||||
| Goals |
Honours with Celtic
(Honours are marked below in which the player has played in at least one of the matches in the campaign.)
Scottish League
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Scottish Cup
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Scottish League Cup
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Pictures
Forums
Articles
Links
Notes
Articles
‘Powerful, hard-working, winner – my friend Kasper’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/clmmjmxd0ylo
Joe Hart’s BBC Sport column
Published
20 June 2024
I have not heard Kasper Schmeichel speak before Denmark’s Euro 2024 game against England on Thursday, but I know exactly what he will be feeling.
He is going to feel like he is the best goalkeeper he can be – that he is still at the peak of his powers and that he can still make a difference for his country – he would not be here otherwise.
Kasper and I go way back, all the way to when we faced each other for the first time in February 2006, when I was playing for Shrewsbury and he was on loan at Bury from Manchester City.
Back then, we were just two teenagers playing our first few professional games in League Two, so it is pretty cool how things evolved for both of us over the course of our careers.
Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel since his senior international debut in 2013Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Schmeichel, who now plays his club football in Belgium with Anderlecht, has won 102 caps for Denmark since his senior international debut in 2013
At 37, he is the same age as me. Well, in fact, he is five months older, and I love the fact he is still playing on the biggest stage.
In England, people may well have lost track of him since he left Leicester in 2022 – I have found out myself that our English mindset when you are not in the Premier League can be that if you are out of sight, you are out of mind.
But there will be many more watching the game on Thursday who, like me, will appreciate Kasper for everything he is, as a person and a player.
His strengths as a goalkeeper are his physique and his power. He turned himself into an incredible athlete at a young age, and that has never changed. He is aggressive and assertive, and he can do things that a lot of other keepers can’t.
But as well as his physical attributes, I know how his mentality has played a huge part in what he has done in his career, and how he achieved it.
You don’t stay at the top for so long, like he has, without having an incredible passion for the game.
From League Two to title winner
Kasper Schmeichel celebrates Leicester’s Premier League title win in 2016Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Schmeichel celebrates Leicester’s Premier League title win in 2016
We met as opponents, but Kasper and I soon became team-mates at City when I joined them a few months after that game at Gay Meadow, and we clicked straightaway. Right from the start, we were never rivals, always good friends.
Kasper was the first person to welcome me at City on my first day at the training ground. He was actually waiting for me, to take me into the building. I’ll never forget that, because it meant a lot.
For me at the time, it was especially huge because of his name. I’d love to just talk about Kasper here but you cannot ignore the fact that his dad was Peter Schmeichel, a goalkeeping legend who I really looked up to.
That got Kasper through a few doors, and got him into conversations, but the rest? He had to do it all himself.
In fact, you could say he had it tougher because he knew people were judging him before he stepped into goal because of who he was.
His response was to work harder than everyone, forge his own path and write his own place in the Premier League history books, and win more than 100 caps for Denmark.
That attitude has always been part of his make-up and has helped to make him an incredible goalkeeper – hard-working and strong, but also opinionated and willing to stand by his word.
All of this was part of his journey down to League Two and back to become a title winner with Leicester, via the loan moves he made at every level, or when he was willing to take risks and drop down divisions in order to play first-team football.
He has built his career the way he has, because he has never stopped wanting to do more. We were the same in that regard because that kind of drive shaped my career too.
Where we were different was how we identified our goals when we were young goalkeepers.
We would talk about where we hoped our journey would take us. Kasper always said he had set out to try to win the Premier League, and was very open and honest about that, while my approach was that I decided I would go for it every day, no matter where my career took me.
I kind of lived my career like that, even when I started winning things with City. There were no limits and I was not afraid to go lower or higher. My outlook was that whether I was playing first-team football for Shrewsbury Town in League Two or England at a World Cup finals, I was up for it.
Every game is an education
Kasper Schmeichel (l) and Joe Hart in 2015Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Schmeichel and Hart met in the 2015-16 season, when Leicester side won the Premier League title
Another thing Kasper and I had in common from those early days together at City was our work ethic.
Whatever happened to me in football, good or bad, I never let my work-rate dip, or allowed my attitude to be questioned and Kasper never gave anyone a chance to do that either.
That’s probably one of the reasons we both got to the age of 37 at the top level, but I never thought I was doing anything special and I am sure if you asked Kasper he would say the same.
It never felt like an effort for me to push myself, because football was never a sacrifice to me. Instead it was my life, and it meant everything.
Trying to be at my best was something that I enjoyed doing, right from when Kasper and I were kids together at City, until the very end of my last season with Celtic, a few weeks ago.
Once you get to a certain age as a goalkeeper, it is not so much the miles in your legs that you can feel as the impact of the dives you have made on your body.
You can’t continue for any reason other than it is just what you do, and because you want to keep doing it.
I am retired now, but I am so pleased Kasper is still out there, and is not finished yet. He treats every game as an education, and even now he wants to learn some more.
Joe Hart was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan in Berlin.
[….]
PaulJohnDykes (ACSOM)
As Kasper Schmeichel is set to become Celtic’s first signing of the summer, our entire recruitment strategy will be judged, fairly or otherwise, on this initial arrival.
It’s understandable, given that we’ve had plenty of time to find a replacement for Joe Hart, that some fans feel underwhelmed that the one we have identified is a 37-year-old free agent.
Anxiety and frustration has grown with the passing days and weeks of transfer inaction, with many wondering if the club has become complacent again with just 66 days until the opening Champions League Group Stage matches kick off.
This signing will naturally raise legitimate questions around our entire recruitment process.
Have we identified the best available talent globally by using recruitment data and scouting?
Or has Brendan simply hand-picked a goalie he has worked with before?
I get the concern, particularly when we have been unable to get any other deals done, but what are the positives of bringing Schmeichel to Celtic Park?
-We’re signing a Danish #1, who has a wealth of international experience, and who has known success at the very top level of club football;
-He’s not someone who is coming in from the cold, unlike Joe Hart who had played 10 games the season before we bought him;
– Rodgers knows the mentality of the player and has judged that he has the attributes to take over from such an influential figure as Joe Hart;
– He is undoubtedly Brendan Rodgers’ signing and an indication that the gaffer is in charge of who comes in this time round.
This move shows that our recruitment process is still in a state of flux, which is unacceptable for a club this size.
But it also indicates that Rodgers (along with Nicholson and Lefevre) are responsible for recruitment during this window.
Schmeichel will work for a season or two, but his arrival speaks volumes for the fact that we actually don’t have a properly functioning recruitment department.
[….]
“Celtic is a massive club but it’s small as a family inside,” Brendan Rodgers
By Editor 21 July, 2024 No Comments
[“Celtic is a massive club but it’s small as a family inside,” Brendan Rodgers]
https://thecelticstar.com/celtic-is-a-massive-club-but-its-small-as-a-family-inside-brendan-rodgers/Brendan Rodgers was clearly delighted with his side’s 4-0 victory over DC United – a reverse of the scoreline from the last time the tow clubs met in the American capital when Gordon Strachan was the Celtic manager.
Here’s Brendan speaking to Gerry McCulloch from Celtic TV, talking about the brilliant Celtic support at the match, having no excuses about the state of the pitch, the intensity of the performance, the hard work that had been down throughout the week in the heat and the impact that his first
Brendan confirmed that new signing was at the game and will have now seen for himself the size of his new club as the Celtic fans filled the stadium after greeting the players outside of the team’s hotel. Even as the players went through their post -match routines on the pitch, the Celtic support was still in the stadium cheering them on.
Here’s what Brendan had to say about the Denmark international goalkeeper’s arrival in the USA to join up with his new teammates at Celtic.
“Celtic is a massive club but it’s small as a family inside it and he’ll find that the Celtic family is like no other. He sees the hallmarks of a big club. He was brought up with his father at a huge club so the support outside of the hotel, all these symbols, a notion of a big club. Celtic supporters are everywhere and he’ll feel that during his time here. I know he’s really excited and I am excited for him also,” Brendan said.
“I was there. Finally got to see my favorite club play in person. Please come back to the states next year.”
“What an amazing game it was a blessing watching you at this game, the crowd was outstanding.”
“Me and my brother were there to see the match between two of our favorite clubs against each other. I really so high for O’Riley goals. Been the standout player. Really will miss Birnbaum. Been a pleasure watching him on the field for 10 years.”
“It was a great game to watch from the stands, great game Celtic.”
“What a game! Let’s go Celtic!”
“Nice workout for the Bhoys with Kuhn catching the eye in particular.”
“Top pressing lads.”
“I thought it was gonna be a close game? Celtic destroyed DC!! Looking forward to seeing if Man City and Chelsea can do something against Celtic, If Brendan gives the kids a chance in those games it should be close…”
How Celtic star first ended up in Scottish football – £800 in pocket, dressing-room negotiation and Joe Hart
Mark Atkinson
By Mark Atkinson
Sports Editor
Comments
Published 20th Sep 2024, 12:00 BST
The story behind Schmeichel’s move to Falkirk 17 years ago
Joe Hart played a huge part in current Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel’s first stint in Scottish football, one of the Dane’s former managers has revealed.
Veteran stopper Schmeichel joined Celtic this summer on a free transfer, 17 years on from playing as a youngster on loan at Falkirk for a season. Now 37 years old, Schmeichel will come up against the Bairns when the two teams meet at Celtic Park on Sunday in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals.
John Hughes was the man who brought Schmeichel to the Falkirk Stadium back in 2007, with the then Man City player coming in on loan. He played 15 times for the club and make a strong impression. However, one of the chief players in the loan deal at the time was Hart – who was Celtic’s No 1 before retiring last summer – and Hughes recalled how the deal came about.
Kasper Schmeichel played for Falkirk back in 2007.
Kasper Schmeichel played for Falkirk back in 2007. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602
“When we were at Falkirk we were never away from Manchester, mostly Manchester United watching all their young players,” said Hughes. “That was part and parcel of the job we’d learned from Jim Jeffries and Billy Brown when we were players at Falkirk. Every Tuesday after training they’d be in the car down south looking at players.
“We were looking for a goalkeeper, we had buttons – about £800 in our pocket and we went down to Manchester City. We’re in among all the scouts and I recognised four or five guys in Manchester City tracksuits. I went over to ask them about the goalkeeper [Kasper] Schmeichel. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was Joe Hart! Joe Hart gave him a glowing reference.
“[Kasper] was a different class, watching the game you could see he was just full of himself. Great confidence. After the game, people are leaving but I saw the manager was Stuart Pearce and Brian Rice [John’s assistant at Falkirk] had played with Stuart at Nottingham Forest. I said to Rice, “you’re going in that dressing room, we’re doing it tonight”. Rice got flung in the dressing room. He said we’ve not got much money , we’re down for the goalkeeper. Stuart Pearce said he needs that, that would suit him. As long as he plays, I’ll put it to him. The next day Kasper was up in Scotland.”
On the impact Schmeichel made in Falkirk, Hughes added in an interview on The Warm Up: “The minute he came in, you could tell he was something different. He had a real belief in himself. He mixed right in but he had a real focus on where he was going. A mad trainer, he loved to roll about covered in mud and even when training was finished he’d be taking free kicks and hitting penalties.”