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For Leicester, a very Enchanted April indeed

By on April 16, 2016

There is a 1922 novel, Enchanted April, on the matter of finding happiness via a quaint tale of four British women. In life, the book eloquently puts it, there are befores and afters, and to bridge the gap between the two is a most disarming ordeal.  For every after, a before must be lost and by nature, loss is unbalancing.

And therein lies an inherent beauty of Leicester City’s rise in the Premier League: a group of former Premier league castoffs and lower-league veterans rising to glory in a place they would have least expected it.  For the East Midlands club, April has never been so enchanted as they soar towards the Premier League title.

Of course, Claudio Ranieri’s men will never get ahead of themselves until the title is in their hands because in many of their careers, and every one of their players, each in his own unique way, seem to have had a transformative journey to the club, the after has always been pushed further out of their reach. Until now.

Kasper Schmeichel has blended into the background next to his teammates Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, but he has nevertheless been an absolute cornerstone of their success, starting every one of their thirty-three league games in goal this season.

Yet success hasn’t come easily to Schmeichel, or for that matter, any of his teammates.  His father, Peter, was a world-renowned goalkeeper himself and a Manchester United legend, known for his boisterous personality and irrepressible talent.  And although Peter’s career gave Kasper a platform to kick of his career, Schmeichel Jr. has had to carve his own unusual path to success.

“I am very happy here now but I don’t regret any of the moves I have made,” he told the Guardian in 2012. “I’ve played in nearly every league and country on these islands, apart from League One. I’ve played in Scotland, I’ve played in Wales, in the Premier League and in the Championship. I’ve been lucky to get a broad footballing education.”

His breakthrough came in the most unconventional manner, having been scouted by Danish side Brondby after taking up the gloves in his father’s friendly match celebrating the tenth anniversary of Denmark’s Euro 1992 campaign.  Peter Schmeichel played the first half in goal, but fancied his chances up front in the second period, and so Schmeichel Jr. stepped in.

To general astonishment, Kasper played a blinder in goal and was scouted by Lars Olsen, who played in front of Schmeichel at centerback and just happened to be a coach at Brondby.

Before Schmeichel could finish his trial, though, news of his success had reached Manchester City and the English giants snapped him up without hesitation.

Schmeichel is gracious that his father’s career gave him the platform to develop his trade.  As a youngster, he would regularly watch his father train with some of the best and hardest working footballers ever — Manchester United’s Class of ’92 — and he says their work ethics are still instilled in his ethos.

“Watching people like my dad, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Eric Cantona every day in training was incredible,” he said.  “I saw how hard they worked, the perfectionism and absolute dedication required to reach the top. Their work ethic is the reason they were the best and the reason they, in the case of Giggs and Scholes, still are the best. I learned that there were no shortcuts.”

And he has certainly taken the long path to success.

At the same time, he was still living in his father’s shadow at City despite of his own growing talent.  In his tender teenage years the comparisons were unfair and overwhelming.

At City, he was in line to take the No1 spot and on this basis signed a long-term contract with the club.  The next moment, he discovered this wasn’t the case and only ever made four appearances for City.

Desperate for playing time, however, he played on loan for Darlington, Bury, Falkirk, Cardiff City and Coventry City, before finally earning a permeant move to Notts County.

“It was a crazy season,” he told the Guardian in a 2012 interview. “One day we were using planes to get to matches and the next we could hardly afford a bus. One minute these people said they had lots and lots of money and all of a sudden you find out that it was a con and that they weren’t there any more.

“But I loved it. Going there was one of the best decisions I’ve made. It is in those situations you really learn what kind of people you are working with. Every day we just came in reading the papers trying to work out what was going on. We knew nothing. We were just trying to get on with the football. And in the end we won the league comfortably.”

He then spent a year at Leeds United before being unceremoniously sold to Leicester in 2011, where he has finally found his own home.  In four years, he has become a leader of the team and a pivotal part of their title run — though the comparisons to his father, he finds, have only increased.

Now, though, Peter Schmeichel is simply Kasper’s father at the King Power Stadium.  Heading into a crucial meeting with West Ham United at the weekend, Schmeichel and his Leicester teammates are closing in on the league title and finally, their happy ever afters.

Homepage photo credit: Chris 0023 from Lyngby, Denmark (Kasper Schmeichel – Leicster) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.