Peter Schmeichel

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Presenter0:05

Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:42

My castaway this week is the former footballer Peter Schmeichel. He was a gladiator in goal with a winning streak that followed him wherever he went. As a schoolboy, growing up just outside Copenhagen, he dreamed of playing for his beloved Manchester United. Years later, in 1999, he captained the side in one of the most astonishing comebacks in football as United won the Champions League with two goals in extra time, completing a much-coveted treble along with the Premiership and the FA Cup. At six foot four, he was an indomitable presence in his penalty area and kept a clean sheet for an exceptional 42% of his Man United appearances. He's also the most capped Danish footballer ever, playing for his home nation a record 129 times. He was the scourge of strikers and sometimes of his teammates too. He says, I took everything about my job extremely seriously. I shouted throughout the games, I never compromised, never backed down. I look back, and frankly, I can see this guy who could be incredibly annoying to be around. Peter Schmeichel, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Peter Schmeichel1:50

Thank you very much.

Presenter1:52

So Peter, you were arguably the most famous Dane in the world during your career with Man United, a team that you'd supported and dreamed of playing for since you were just a kid. What did it mean to you to wear that number one shirt?

Peter Schmeichel2:05

It was literally a dream come true because when I was a kid, every night I was falling asleep to this dream of playing for Manchester United, playing at Wembley in an FA Cup final and winning the game and being the hero

Presenter2:19

That Manchester United team that you were part of from 1991 through to 1999, it was made up of some of the most charismatic players, some of the biggest characters in the game at the time-Roy Keane, David Beckham, Eric Cantena among them. You had so many opportunities to celebrate your success, but I do want to ask about one particular evening in 1996 when you'd beaten Liverpool to win the FA Cup and clinch the double. Now, apparently, you were on the piano while Eric Cantenager played the trumpet. Just talk me through that.

Peter Schmeichel2:53

Eric and me, we were roommates for away trips. We stayed in the same hotel room and we had long chats about everything and I knew that Eric he'd begun to take trumpet lessons and from a very early age my father wanted me to be a pianist so I say forced. It was a bit forced I have to say but I was forced to play the piano. It was one of those rare moments where you had a little bit too much adrenaline still in your body and maybe a little bit too much to drink as well and there's a piano when whatever happens happens and you get carried away.

Presenter3:27

Can you remember what you played?

Peter Schmeichel3:29

Tried to play my Funny Valentine. Eric loved my Funny Valentine. I know that his dream was to play My Funny Valentine and it was part of uh his lessons.

Presenter3:41

It's a poignant track to choose for celebration though, isn't it?

Peter Schmeichel3:43

Um

Peter Schmeichel3:45

I know, but we might have had a little bit too much to drink.

Presenter3:48

I know that you recently took on a lockdown guitar challenge. Tell me about that.

Peter Schmeichel3:52

So the compromise with my dad was if I had to stay out of piano lessons, which I found very, very boring when I was a kid, can I play the guitar instead? So I started to play guitar as a kid and I never really learned it because then I moved on to drums and my father really seriously insisted on the piano. So I was kind of forced to do that. And at the same time, I just wanted to play football. But the guitar, you know, you get to know five or six chords and they stay with you forever. So in lockdown, all work has stopped and you're literally just in the house. You couldn't go anywhere. And I thought this could be a way of challenging myself and pushing myself to learn more. So on Instagram, I asked my followers to challenge me with little pieces of guitar music. And then I had one week to learn it and it takes over my life. And I practice when I'm watching football.

Presenter4:12

Hmm.

Speaker 44:44

Yeah.

Peter Schmeichel4:47

It kinda takes the edge of watching Leicester play and of course watching Man Unidu play. It's a lot of emotions to have if it's just raw.

Presenter4:59

You're sharing your eight tracks with us today, Peter. What's the first one that you've chosen?

Peter Schmeichel5:03

A lot of the disc that I've picked are from growing up and one of the bands that I grew up with was Queen. I absolutely love Queen and of course having played for Manchester United, of course Brombu and Denmark and having won a lot of trophies with those teams and my teammates, we've always been playing one particular song afterwards and that is of course We Are the Champions. Listening to that brings me back to certain places and certain memories.

Speaker 45:31

I mean I'm the champions, my friend.

Speaker 45:38

And we'll keep on fighting till the end. We are the champions, we are the champions. No time for losers, cause we are the champions.

Speaker 46:03

On the way.

Presenter6:11

Queen and we are the champions. So Peter Schmeichel, you painted an intriguing portrait of how you celebrated wins during your football career earlier. I wonder what you were like when you lost a game, when it didn't go your way?

Peter Schmeichel6:26

Yeah, I'm not sure you want to know.

Presenter6:29

Not so good.

Peter Schmeichel6:30

In the moment and leaving the stadium or driving back home, you still have all the adrenaline flying through your whole system and usually winning or losing. The next night is difficult to sleep anyway. You have to move on. It's very important that you move on very quickly. We learned that from a master, Sir Alex, because when we talked about him before, he was just Alex Ferguson. Now he's Sir Alex Ferguson.

Presenter6:38

Flying.

Presenter6:57

I quoted you in the introduction, Peter, looking back on yourself as a young footballer and reflecting on how seriously you took everything, understandably, on the pitch. But as you said, it might not have always made you the easiest person to be around. What did you need from a manager to ensure that you could give your best?

Peter Schmeichel7:18

Well, first of all, I needed permission to be that way.

Peter Schmeichel7:23

I think if you take successful teams, you will always find that most people are different. They have different ways of being, of reacting and dealing with being at that level. That people that are like that, they are the people who get to the top as well. So that I could perform and I needed a manager who could manage my friend who was to the right and my friend that was to the left, but not the same as me, and making sure that these guys had the best circumstances to perform, if you like. So Alex was brilliant at that.

Presenter7:59

Does it take a particular kind of personality to want to become a goalkeeper? It can be one of the lonelier jobs in the sport.

Peter Schmeichel8:07

I have to say I didn't have a choice.

Peter Schmeichel8:09

My first training ever was in in that local club where I grew up and I was outfield for about three minutes and the coach he was a bit scared of what I could do to all the other kids. So I said, Why don't you try the goal? So it's kind of keeping me away from other kids.

Presenter8:25

Because you were bigger, or is this because you were tall already?

Peter Schmeichel8:27

I was a bit wild.

Presenter8:29

I feel like I'm not sure.

Peter Schmeichel8:29

I mean, I was just in gold and I liked it and very quickly people came up to me and said uh oh, you're very good and when grown ups are s are telling you that you're good at something, at least for me, I then

Speaker 48:31

Uh

Peter Schmeichel8:43

Think I'm good at them, I'm going to be better, and I'm not going to disappoint these people. And that's how he ended up in gold.

Presenter8:49

Peter, it's time for some more music. Your second disc today. Tell us what we're going to hear and why you've chosen it.

Peter Schmeichel8:51

Yeah.

Peter Schmeichel8:55

So I said my father was a musician and my house was full of music. My mother loved, absolutely loved, and to this day loves classical music and will go literally anywhere in Copenhagen for any concert. She's 87, she's still doing it. I think we had about 50 LP records back then and 49 of them were classical music. But one of them was jazz. It was Oscar Peterson's night train. And on that record is a tune called Hymn to Freedom, which is a tune my sister and myself, we got to play during our piano lessons. But I really, really like jazz piano. And there is for me no better pianist than Oscar Peterson. So I had to pick a song that he plays. And because this is the first non-classical record in my house, and it was the one that we could listen to, then I chose Hymn to Freedom from that.

Presenter10:52

Oscar Peterson and Him to Freedom. So Peterschmichel, let's go back to your early life, where that track takes you. Growing up in Denmark, your family story will definitely surprise people, I think. So your father Tolek was Polish, he was a jazz pianist, and he was also a spy. How did he come to Denmark?

Peter Schmeichel11:13

So it it it starts with my mother actually. She was on a cruise ship that um

Peter Schmeichel11:19

Went from Canada to Copenhagen and then to Poland. And we're back in the late 50s. So she was going on board in Copenhagen, going to Canada, and coming back to Copenhagen, then going back on land. Because going to Poland obviously required visa and everything. But she's even to this day a very curious type. So having

Peter Schmeichel11:40

gone off the ship, she decided to go back on and see if she can sneak herself on the trip to Poland because she really wanted to see Poland and she got found out and it was quite a a difficult uh situation that she found herself in. But she managed to get a visa on board and she then went when they got to Gdansk in Poland, she went to a cultural holiday-ish town called Sopot.

Peter Schmeichel12:05

When she arrived she realized that there was his play.

Peter Schmeichel12:09

In a theater called A Taste of Honey. And it was a massive sensation. We're in the Cold War here, a Western play in an Eastern bloc country, and it was impossible to get a ticket. And she really, really wanted to see that play while she was there. And she spotted this guy. He had two tickets in his hands, and she asked if she could have one of them. It was my father. And she persuaded him to part with one of these tickets. And they fell in love and they got married in Poland. She didn't want to stay, and she was pregnant with my sister. This is so typical. My mother said, I'm going to go back to Denmark. I see you there. Make your own way. And of course, we have to think back to that time, the Cold War. So if you had any contact with a Westerner,

Presenter12:53

Good.

Peter Schmeichel12:57

You know, they kept an eye on you.

Peter Schmeichel12:59

And once they realized that my father wanted to leave and go to Denmark, they were trying to force him. My father was a musician. He's educated in the music school in Poland. He's nothing else than a musician. But they wanted him to spy on Denmark. That was a condition for leaving Poland that he would spy on Denmark. And my father didn't want to do that. And eventually he realized that if he didn't agree to that, he would never leave Poland. So he agreed. and got sent out to Denmark via Berlin. And that was at the time that we're building the wall as well. So he experienced all that. He was completely paranoid and didn't know what to do. So what he did when he came to Denmark, eventually he reported himself. They had no clue, did not know what to do with this guy because obviously he was very, very low level.

Presenter13:49

So he handed himself in basically as soon as he arrived.

Peter Schmeichel13:52

They put they put him in a prison cell only for a few days until they realized, well, we might be able to spy on Poland. And he didn't want to do that either. So but he agreed because he would get out and he and go and see his wife and hopefully be around for when his first child were being born. So he became

Peter Schmeichel14:09

In a way he became a double spy, double agent.

Presenter14:12

How much of a spying career was actually happening in the background of your family life, do you think, when you look back?

Peter Schmeichel14:18

I think nothing.

Presenter14:20

Right.

Peter Schmeichel14:20

I really do think that's a good idea.

Presenter14:21

So he was kind of on the books, but not not doing a lot of it.

Peter Schmeichel14:22

I don't know where he would have found out anything that would have been of interest for anybody, any service in Poland, that they couldn't find out themselves. Once he hit Denmark, his life was work, work, work, just work.

Presenter14:38

Tell me about seeing him play growing up,'cause he travelled a bit, but he also earned a living playing in Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens. Did you used to go and watch him perform?

Peter Schmeichel14:48

I did. There's a big restaurant in in Tvly Gardens that was well known for their entertainment scene. So it would be mostly American tourists coming in in buses. They would have that three course meal. He would play piano while they had that. And then he would play as they were dancing till what, eleven o'clock in the evening. He was a really, really, really good pianist.

Presenter15:09

Your father lost both of his parents during the course of the war and in under the most traumatic circumstances.

Peter Schmeichel15:16

My father's mother, Anna, she joined uh the resistance and when Russia took over Poland they rounded up anyone really they they considered an enemy and took them to concentration camps and I I think my father was he was past seventy.

Peter Schmeichel15:33

maybe even 75 before he found out for sure what had happened to her. And that that played a very big part in his life. Did it help him to know? Yeah, I think it did. She was kind of a hero inside the concentration camp, taking care of the weak ones, the ill ones, the sick ones, fighting for better conditions, for food. And eventually she got struck by uh illness herself and passed away from that.

Presenter15:57

Peter, we've got to make time for some music now. It's your third choice today. What have you gone for?

Peter Schmeichel16:02

So we come from Anna, my grandmother. So we're gonna put ROS in front of that. So it's Rosanna with Toto. It's one of the best songs ever written, I think. Everyone who plays in Toto is a musical genius.

Speaker 416:24

All I wanna do when I wake up in the morning to see you lie

Speaker 416:29

Rosanna, Rosanna Never thought that a girl like you could ever care for me.

Speaker 416:37

Rose and I'm a little bit

Presenter16:50

Rosanna by Toto. So Peter Schmeichel, tell me more about your mum, Inga. She was a nurse and worked very long shifts in in charge of a children's cancer ward, I believe. That must have been hugely demanding work. So I'm presuming she's pretty tenacious.

Peter Schmeichel17:05

Well, it was and it was and I think psychologically it was very very tough on her having four kids herself and working in this ward where kids were very very ill some of them passed away from that illness. I think the mortality rate was a lot higher back then. It's so unfair when kids that they have to leave this world. I think for her psychologically it was really really tough. If you can take that part away working seven days off and seven days on and then you report at work at four o'clock. It wasn't that bad for her because she would be with us every morning before we went to school. She would have good time. She wasn't rushing to get to work. And every seven days, you know, she was completely off. So where a lot of families are they are tight unit around the dinner table. We probably were around

Peter Schmeichel17:54

the breakfast table. That's where our family time was.

Presenter17:57

Tell me about your time at school, Peter. I'm taking it you were pretty good at sport. What else did you enjoy?

Peter Schmeichel18:03

I was quite good at math. I wasn't a choir boy. Not a choir boy, a choir boy. I was never any teacher's favourite kid cause I was disruptive at times. I just had so much energy and it was difficult for me to sit still for 45 minutes, however long a lesson was. It kind of sort of got me into trouble now and again. I started preschool and only six months into that, my mother got a phone call from the headteacher asking her to find me another place, another school.

Presenter18:34

A preschool?

Peter Schmeichel18:35

That's pretty screw.

Presenter18:36

What had you done at preschool that they took exception to?

Peter Schmeichel18:39

Yeah, I would have been about six.

Presenter18:40

Okay, so pr so still early primary school though?

Peter Schmeichel18:41

Correct.

Peter Schmeichel18:43

Yeah, and she told the teacher to go um no, I can't say that on radio camera.

Presenter18:48

Yeah.

Peter Schmeichel18:49

You get the truth.

Presenter18:49

We get the gist.

Peter Schmeichel18:50

Yeah, she knew what it was like and she wanted the teachers to to deal with that. That was part of going to school, in her opinion, that I also learned that.

Presenter19:00

We'd love to hear your next piece of music if you would. What's it gonna be?

Peter Schmeichel19:04

Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler, who is a massive hero of mine, against somebody I grew up listening to. I mean, I would have picked Telegraph Road, but it's twelve minutes long and I didn't think that was fitting for a radio programme. I picked the maybe the biggest song they've ever made, and it's Sol Tense of Swing.

Speaker 419:27

Get a shiver in the dark, it's raining in the park meantime.

Speaker 419:34

Sound of the river, you stop and you hold everything.

Speaker 419:41

A band is blowing Dixie, double fall time.

Speaker 419:47

You feel alright when you hear the music

Presenter19:53

Diastrates and Sultans of Swing. So Peter Schmeichel, lots of boys grow up playing football. At what age did you think a professional career might be possible for you?

Peter Schmeichel20:04

I think right from the beginning.

Peter Schmeichel20:06

And the crazy thing here is that uh we didn't have professional football in Denmark.

Peter Schmeichel20:11

In 1978, the law was changed so you could become professional sports people. I always felt that I was going to end up in England, and I was chasing that dream.

Presenter20:20

It wasn't always easy to make ends meet playing football, even when you were professional. In the early days of your career, you you had a lot of other jobs on your C V at that time. You worked in a fabric factory, cleaner in an old people's home, you did national service, you worked in a prison. What were you doing in the prison?

Peter Schmeichel20:38

I was an apprentice doing floors, so linoleum and carpet fitting and the company that I work for were having work done in the Remand Prison in Copenhagen. So we had a job which was about four months.

Peter Schmeichel20:52

And and being in there, that that was tough. It made a really, really big impression on me, of course, uh a young man, seeing the inside of a prison, seeing people who are are locked up, desperation, despair, you know, just smell

Peter Schmeichel21:06

I sometimes smell some something similar to that. It reminds me of that. It's a very characteristic smell. It was not a great experience. And the tools that I was using, knives, hammers, nails, stuff like that, I had to be accountable for every little bit I had. Plus the fact that I had keys, I have to say I felt very insecure and very vulnerable in there.

Presenter21:28

It's time for some more music, Peter. Disc number five. What are you going to take to the island with you and why?

Peter Schmeichel21:34

I'm going to take one of the best musicians, one of the best songwriters ever. And it was the second non-classical album that we had in our house. It's Stevie Wonder and the album is called Songs in the Key of Life. But Stevie Wonder for me is just what an unbelievable musician. I could have chosen any one of those songs. But this one is the one that was played the most in my house. And it's a song called Saduk.

Speaker 422:02

Music is a world within itself With a language we all understand

Speaker 422:11

With an equal opportunity, we're all to sang, dance, and clap their hands.

Speaker 422:19

Well just because the record has a groove don't make it in the groove But you can tell right away

Presenter22:30

Stevie Wonder and Sir Duke Peter Schmichel, which I'm assuming got the most play in your house because it's about Duke Ellington.

Peter Schmeichel22:36

Yeah, what a song, eh?

Presenter22:38

Oh, incredible. So Peter, you were Denmark's goalkeeper for fourteen years and capped one hundred and twenty nine times. You're also part of the Euro ninety two winning Danish team. How important was that victory to you?

Peter Schmeichel22:51

That's one of the highlights of my life. Never mind my career. There's a lot of sweet in there, but there's some bitter in there as well.

Peter Schmeichel22:59

Because we weren't qualified for the tournament to begin with, but because of what was happening in Yugoslavia back then, the civil war and the atrocities that was going on, the international community decided to exclude Yugoslavia from everything, literally everything. And that included sport. And since we finished runners-up to Yugoslavia in qualification, they got kicked out of the Euros and we took their place. And it was difficult. At the time, it was very, very difficult because you want to play these tournaments, but you don't want to play them on that background. And they were already in Sweden. The team was already in Sweden. And we literally took over their facilities. You could say that there was even like, you know, an atmosphere from them there.

Presenter23:45

So there's a feeling of of resentment in the air.

Peter Schmeichel23:48

No, it was more feeling I I felt really, really bad for the players because it wasn't their fault and I felt really, really bad for the people of Yugoslavia, the war that was going on, the things that were happening. And I could understand the stand that the international community took.

Presenter23:52

Okay.

Peter Schmeichel24:05

And something needed to be done. I won't say that we're thinking like that at the time, but we were being used as a political tool. And the more we progressed in the tournament, the more we were connected to that. But we always felt that we were playing for them as well. It is difficult to separate all of that story and then the tournament itself. But of course, you win a tournament like that. It's just incredible. And it was so unexpected. It was more unexpected than you can imagine because we weren't in it. So what a fantastic time it was.

Presenter24:41

It's time for your sixth choice today. What's it gonna be?

Peter Schmeichel24:44

This is one of the biggest stars in modern times, Robbie Williams. And the song that I've chosen is Angels. And I've had the pleasure of actually being on stage with Robbie twice. Once I played the piano.

Peter Schmeichel24:59

And the second time he challenged me to play the guitar and we played Angels and that's why I've chosen that song.

Speaker 425:07

She offers me protection A lot of love and affection

Speaker 425:13

Whether I'm right or wrong

Speaker 425:16

And down the waterfall Wherever it may take me I know that life won't break me When I come to call

Speaker 425:30

She won't forsake me.

Speaker 425:35

I'm loving angels instead.

Presenter25:39

Robbie Williams and Angels. Where did you perform that on stage with Robbie Peter Schmeichel?

Peter Schmeichel25:44

Both times was uh Parkin Stadium, where I've actually played a lot of my internationals. So this time I was so far out of my comfort zone. But it was a great experience. It is so much fun, and uh I'll treasure those two experiences for life.

Presenter26:01

Pity, you spent some of lockdown writing an autobiography. I wonder what it was like for you looking back on yourself as a young man and a young player?

Peter Schmeichel26:09

For a long, long, long time, I've asked myself the question, why at 8-9, why could I say I wanted to play for Denmark and I wanted to play for Manchester United, I wanted to win an FA Cup with Manchester United, and then go and do it? What is it inside of me? I never really came up with one conclusion. This is why. In a way, it's been very interesting to look back and try to find that answer. But also in that, it's been uncomfortable. It has. In what way?

Peter Schmeichel26:38

It's been uncomfortable looking at some of the behaviors of the younger me. I understand them, I can explain them away from now on until the cows come in, but looking at it now, the person that I am in mature age if you like, you kind of wish that that was another way of being, of cert certain things.

Presenter26:58

Do you feel compassion for yourself as well though? Because when I was reading about your pre match nerves as a young player, you recount one particular match in Porto when you're actually fantasizing about the coach crashing because you're so scared of playing.

Peter Schmeichel27:10

Yeah.

Presenter27:12

I felt sorry for you reading that.

Peter Schmeichel27:13

Fuck.

Peter Schmeichel27:15

This is when I leave my first semi-professional club and join Brunby, which is full-time. So this is my first full-time game ever. And it just so happened to be in a quarterfinal of what is now the Champions League. So it was a very, very high standard game. And the leap was massive from where I came from. But I had been, up until that point, very nervous.

Peter Schmeichel27:41

about games. Very nervous. You know, once you got to warm up and started, you know, th it all disappeared. I started to crave these big occasions rather than fearing them.

Presenter27:50

Rather

Presenter27:52

And so many of them came along. Tell me about the moment when Manchester United won the Champions League, nineteen ninety nine, two very, very late goals, and as captain you collected the trophy.

Peter Schmeichel28:04

The crazy thing about that is when I say it like this

Peter Schmeichel28:09

It's I cannot remember anything of it and uh you know

Presenter28:12

You don't remember doing the cartwheel? That's a famous shot of you doing the cartwheel after the winning goal goes in.

Peter Schmeichel28:17

Yeah, I know, because it's on T V. I know it's happened. It's just it's so weird. And everybody who watched the game, they have a story to tell. So in that, I've created this picture of what happened and how it was. But uh it's interesting. I don't really remember it.

Presenter28:33

It's time for your seventh disc today, Peter.

Peter Schmeichel28:35

What have you chosen? I've got to bring Phil Collins. There's no way I'm not bringing Phil Collins to the island. The best job Phil ever, ever, ever is in the air tonight. I met Laura in a period where I was making changes in my life. I fell in love and we had a little getaway in London and I didn't want

Peter Schmeichel28:54

The public to know that I was in a new relationship. I wanted to keep it on just a low profile. I was wearing a scarf and a hat and everything. And she's looking at me and she's saying, How famous are you? Laura didn't know anything about football, kind of ridiculing me a little bit. So we get out of the hotel, we go a hundred yards into a meuse in London, and there's scaffolding on the right hand side, and the builders are going, and I'm completely covered up. Hey, Schmeichel!

Peter Schmeichel29:23

And Laura looks at me and thinks, what? You know, she was not aware of that. And then we get to this Champions League final in Milan.

Peter Schmeichel29:32

This little guy on one crotch came up to me. I've never met him in my life. I know it's Phil Collins. I never met him, but he's a Big Manu fan. And he goes, Pete, oh, it's brilliant. Your son. Yeah.

Presenter29:44

That's your son Caspar. He's goalkeeper for Leicester City, and also the Danish number one.

Peter Schmeichel29:47

Yeah, and Laura is next to me and she's completely, I mean she's completely Guppsmark. That is the height of celebrity that Phil Collins, he comes up to you. You know, still this day we talk about this as a funny story. We now every time Casper plays, he watches that with his son, who plays drums for him, by the way. But he watches the games where he lives in Miami and very often texts me how well Casper is doing. So he's a very nice guy.

Speaker 430:21

Yeah

Presenter30:47

Phil Collins and In the Air Tonight. So Peter Schmeichel, you retired in 2003. How ready were you to step back?

Peter Schmeichel30:56

I could have played on. I wasn't happy where I was.

Peter Schmeichel31:01

But I didn't have the energy to go somewhere else.

Presenter31:04

And what about making the switch from the highly regimented life of a professional footballer to what has come after that? I mean, how have you negotiated that? Because that can be very tough for people, I think, going from that very heavy schedule into nothing.

Peter Schmeichel31:18

It's a massive, massive problem that we do have in football and thankfully there's a lot of the FA and the PFA and they're really trying to be looking at these problems that players have when because you go from really being full on to have nothing.

Peter Schmeichel31:33

It was a little bit different with me because I was forty when I retired and I was kind of ready for it. I've had many, many years as a professional footballer. I was looking forward to having some time to myself.

Presenter31:44

You're going to have a lot of time on your hands on the island, of course. I'm about to cast you away. How are you feeling about being all alone on your desert island?

Peter Schmeichel31:53

I'm very good at being on my own. I spend a lot of uh time away in hotel rooms and I'm quite good at that. I'm also very sociable. I really like to be around people. So I'm gonna miss people. I think overall I'll be okay.

Presenter32:09

One more song before you go then, Peter Schmeichel. This is your last disc to day.

Peter Schmeichel32:12

Mm.

Presenter32:13

What have you got?

Peter Schmeichel32:14

That's why I'm only going to be okay because I'm going to miss Laura because we married two years ago and I proposed to her on a holiday. I was supposed to sort of propose at the sunset. So we went to this part of the island that we were on where the sunset was, and it was, I mean, it was overclouded, it was windy. And I've organized the whole thing with the hotel, champagne. I had my own music there, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And she wasn't catching on, I have to say. I was playing this song, The Girl is Mine, as I proposed. And fortunately for me, she said yes. And when we got married, an Irish musician that I met in Ireland, I hired him to come across and play this song in the church. So it's a song that every time I hear it, it reminds me of Laura and that day that we got married. So this is The Girl Is Mine by Michael Jackson of Paul McCartney.

Speaker 433:05

Every night she walks right in my dreams Since I met her from the start I'm so proud I am the only one Who has blessed you live her heart The girl is mine

Speaker 433:22

Without God, girl is mine.

Speaker 433:29

My

Speaker 433:33

Got the dog gone, girl, this is mine

Presenter33:37

The Girl Is Mine, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. So, Peter Schmichael, it's time to cast you away to your island. How will you manage finding food and shelter?

Peter Schmeichel33:46

Do you think? I was an apprentice, you know, working with tools every day, but it's not been one of my strengths ever since. So I'm going to struggle, but I'm also going to find my way, because that's what I do.

Presenter33:58

You can have the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare to help you pass the time. You can also take a book of your choice. What would you like?

Peter Schmeichel34:04

Hmm.

Peter Schmeichel34:06

The book that I will bring is The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Gelbraith. It's a detective novel. It's brilliantly written by J. K. Rawlins. I just wish that she had more time so she could write more Common Stripe books. And it's long, so when I get to the end I can start over again.

Presenter34:26

Nope, keep you busy. You can also have a luxury item. What will that be?

Peter Schmeichel34:30

I'm gonna bring my guitar. I'm gonna spend my time on the island becoming a really, really good guitarist.

Presenter34:35

You've got a great guitar collection. I had a little look at your Instagram videos. I think I see a Gratch in the background there. There's some n some nice ones. Which particular guitar will you take with you?

Peter Schmeichel34:38

Yo, is that?

Peter Schmeichel34:44

So I have a very nice uh Martin guitar. It's an Eric Clapshan uh edition. I haven't brought it on this trip, but I usually bring it everywhere. So it's my traveling companion as well. So it's not far fetched that I bring it to the island.

Presenter34:59

And if you could only save one disk from being swept away out to sea, of the eight that you've shared with us today, which would you choose?

Peter Schmeichel35:07

I mean, it's a no-brainer. I would choose the girl is mine, of course.

Presenter35:12

Petersch Michael, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Peter Schmeichel35:17

Thank you.

Presenter35:39

Hello, I hope you enjoyed that interview with the goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. We've cast many footballers away over the years. They include Iain Wright, David Beckham and Tony Adams. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our Desert Island Discs website. Join me next time when I'll be talking to the writer, Joanne Harris.

Speaker 336:07

From the makers of the Battersea Poltergeist, a new podcast series for BBC Radio 4.

Speaker 336:13

Uncalling.

Speaker 336:15

Do you believe in ghosts? No. Have you seen one? Yes. Real-life stories of the supernatural. Told by the people they happen to. Presented by me, Danny Robbins.

Speaker 336:26

There was a very strong sense of pure evil.

Speaker 336:33

Subscribe to Uncanny on BBC Sounds.