Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel had been offered a seven-year contract by Premier League champions, Manchester United, in a deal which will net him a lucrative £2.5m in that period. The package was worth £7,000 a week, giving him a £2,000 pay rise on his current salary and constitutes one of the best packages offered to a professional footballer in Britain. Signed from Brondby for a bargain £550,000 in August 1991 and recently voted, the “Best Goalkeeper in the World,”
Schmeichel’s value has soared following United’s Premiership success and Denmark’s unexpected triumph in the European Championship finals in Sweden. Now Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, keen to hold on to one of his prize assets, is ready to offer the 30-year-old Dane a king’s ransom to tie the player to the Old Trafford club until the year 2000.
Peter Schmeichel “1 am very happy at Manchester United and I am keen to sign a new deal. 1 still have more than two years to run on my current contract, so 1 am very flattered that they have offered me an extended deal” “The way things are going now, I can see myself here until I am 36 or 37 and ending my career at United.” A Danish source confirmed: “Peter is delighted with the way things have gone at Manchester United. He has settled in England and is more that happy to see out the remainder of his career there.”
