Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel told Sir Alex Ferguson he wanted to leave the club years before their Treble-winning campaign.
The Danish goalkeeper was a giant for the Red Devils between the sticks. Whether it was saving the crucial penalty from Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp in the 1999 FA Cup semi-final replay to his all-round leadership, Schmeichel is one of the club’s most important players in their history.
But before that memorable 1998/99 season, United looked to have a Champions League curse lingering over them. Ferguson was a serial winner, but the big-eared European trophy was always out of the Scotsman’s reach.
With the bulk of Ferguson’s players hitting their peak in the 1996/97 season, many thought United’s best hopes of European success were over when Borussia Dortmund beat them 2-0 on aggregate in the semi-final of the competition. When that campaign came to a close, United captain and star man Eric Cantona left Old Trafford and retired from football.
At times, it looked like Schmeichel would be following the Frenchman out of the exit door. An unnamed European giant were believed to be keen on signing Schmeichel soon after Cantona’s departure. Looking back on that decisive campaign, the legendary Dane said he would have left were it not for Ferguson.
“I have to be honest to say, at some point, I was starting to doubt that,” Schmeichel said on Prime Video’s ‘99’ documentary when asked if he believed United would win the Champions League at the time. “When you play for Manchester United, we claim to be the biggest club in the world.”
The Dane added: “Eric [Cantona] was leaving. There was another big club, who were very, very interested in me. I went to see the manager.
“I said I’d been very, very tempted and I explained: ‘The reason that I didn’t dismiss it was, I don’t feel that we can win in Europe’. The manager said: ‘You can’t leave now, you can’t leave now. We will win. We will win’.”
Schmeichel would remain at the club for another two years. In his final season on the red side of Manchester, the shot-stopper left United with a fifth Premier League winners’ medal, a third FA Cup and the highly-coveted Champions League.
United fans can still recall the sight of Schmeichel performing a series of flips and handstands on the pitch after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Champions League winning goal against Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp.
He would go on to play for Sporting for two seasons, before coming back to the Premier League to play for Aston Villa. And he did eventually come back to Manchester, though unfortunately for United fans, it was to play for neighbours Manchester City.
