Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A legendary former goalkeeper who captained Manchester United to the 1999 treble and holds the record for most caps for Denmark.
On the island
Eight records
Listening to that brings me back to certain places and certain memories.
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.
It's one of the best songs ever written, I think. Everyone who plays in Toto is a musical genius.
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 Sultans of Swing.
This one is the one that was played the most in my house. And it's a song called Sir Duke.
I've had the pleasure of actually being on stage with Robbie twice. Once I played the piano. And the second time he challenged me to play the guitar and we played Angels and that's why I've chosen that song.
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.
The Girl Is MineFavourite
Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney
I was playing this song, The Girl is Mine, as I proposed. And fortunately for me, she said yes.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:52What did it mean to you to wear that number one shirt?
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.
Presenter asks
6:11What were you like when you lost a game?
Yeah, I'm not sure you want to know. ... 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.
Presenter asks
6:57What did you need from a manager to ensure that you could give your best?
Well, first of all, I needed permission to be that way. 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.
The keepsakes
The book
Robert Galbraith
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.
The luxury
Martin guitar (Eric Clapton edition)
I'm gonna bring my guitar. I'm gonna spend my time on the island becoming a really, really good guitarist.
Presenter asks
10:52How did your father come to Denmark?
So it starts with my mother actually. She was on a cruise ship that went from Canada to Copenhagen and then to Poland. ... She decided to go back on and see if she can sneak herself on the trip to Poland ... she got found out ... she managed to get a visa on board and she then went to Gdansk in Poland, she went to a cultural holiday-ish town called Sopot. ... 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 they fell in love and they got married in Poland. ... My mother said, I'm going to go back to Denmark. I see you there. Make your own way. ... They wanted him to spy on Denmark. ... He eventually agreed and got sent out to Denmark via Berlin. ... He reported himself.
Presenter asks
26:58Do you feel compassion for yourself when you look back at your younger self's pre-match nerves?
Fuck. 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 about games. Very nervous. You know, once you got to warm up and started, it all disappeared. I started to crave these big occasions rather than fearing them.
Presenter asks
30:56How have you negotiated the transition from professional football to retirement?
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. 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.
“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.”
“My father's mother, Anna, she joined the resistance and when Russia took over Poland they rounded up anyone they considered an enemy and took them to concentration camps... 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 illness herself and passed away from that.”
“The crazy thing about that is when I say it like this, it's I cannot remember anything of it and you know, I know because it's on TV. 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 it's interesting. I don't really remember it.”
“I'm very good at being on my own. I spend a lot of 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.”