![]() This was after being brought into the club by Louis van Gaal in 1990.īy 1992, he was the first-choice keeper for Ajax and went on to collect a very impressive trophy haul with the Dutch giants during his 9-year stay at the club. Although, he, too, had a bit of a late start.īorn in 1970 in Voorhout, Netherlands, he began his footballing career with Ajax only a few months before his 20 th birthday. While Schmeichel got his big break later than most in the world of Professional football, Van der Sar had a much more successful start to his career. Van der Sar’s story is slightly different to that of Schmeichel’s. No offence to those who stepped in, which include the likes of Mark Bosnich, Fabien Barthez and Tim Howard, but something really needed to be done, if United wanted to claw their way back to the top. However, there was a rather noticeable drop in the standards of goalkeeping for the club. In the 6 years that followed Schmeichel’s departure, United ended up winning the Premier League three more times. Moving along, Schmeichel left United in 1999 following their incredible treble winning season and eventually retired from the game altogether in 2003, at 39 years of age. But seeing as this article is only taking his time at United into account, this information will not be used in the final comparison. He remains to this day the only goalkeeper in the history to be named the player of the tournament since the introduction of the award in the 1984 Euros. While each Denmark player played out their skin in that Tournament, Schmeichel was undoubtedly the star of the show. Within his arsenal was a star jump technique for covering large areas of the goal, long throws for launching counter attacks, a booming voice to organise the defence and a commanding presence of his penalty area.Īnd I have not even mentioned the 1992 UEFA European Championship, which Schmeichel won with Denmark. Standing at 6ft3, his athleticism for his size was a key asset for United. We will get into some key stats in a bit, but the man was something special. This was just one year prior to the introduction of the Premier League, and Schmeichel was 28 years old at this point and just about entering his prime.Įight Glorious years later and the great Dane had cemented himself as a Manchester United and Premier League legend. A deal that Sir Alex Ferguson once described as the bargain of the century. So much so that Manchester United came knocking, signing him up for £505,000 at the onset of the 1991/92 season of the first division. To this day, that is the furthest that any team from Denmark has progressed in any European club competition.Īs you can imagine, Schmeichel was hot property, at that point in his career. Even reaching the 1991 UEFA Cup semi-finals with them. He started his professional career off in 1987 with Brøndby and impressed just about everyone. Before that, while playing on a part time basis, he had to take on several odd jobs to earn a living. Both Champions league winners and multiple premier league winners with United.īut, having said all of that who was better and why?īorn in 1963 in Gladesaxe, Denmark, the great Dane only began his professional footballing career at the age of 24. So, in this article, I will be focussing on Edwin Van der Sar and Peter Schmeichel. ![]() But to give the others a chance, I’ve chosen to exclude him from this comparison. In any case, his career is very much still active, who knows what the future holds.Īnd before anyone asks, yes, I am aware that John O’shea is in indeed United’s best ever keeper. Of course, the teams that each keeper played in plays a large role in this, but we can’t really escape the facts here. However, it is extremely difficult to leave trophies aside when referring to Manchester United. Leaving trophies aside, a strong case could be made that De Gea is or was technically a better goalkeeper than the others in terms of pure ability. Peter Schmeichel, Edwin Van der Sar and David De Gea. However, to this very day, only 3 have proven themselves to be a cut above the rest. Since the dawn of the Premier League, Manchester United have had roughly 23 first team goalkeepers on their books. Being the main man between the sticks at Manchester United is understandably one of the biggest and most daunting tasks in World football.
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