“Looking back, I should have done it.”
Sir Alex Ferguson spent six years trying to find Peter Schmeichel’s replacement, and went through several goalkeepers trying to fill the void left by his departure. By the time he left Old Trafford for Sporting Lisbon in 1999, the Danish goalkeeper was a legend at Old Trafford.
He had been an integral part of Ferguson’s all-conquering teams, and won five Premier League titles, three FA Cups and the Champions League across a Manchester United career that spanned almost 400 games.
In his final United game, Schmeichel captained the team to an incredible European Cup final victory over Bayern Munich in Barcelona. Ferguson’s team scored two goals in stoppage time to claim the trophy, after trailing for most of the match. The Scot would later try sign the goalkeeper Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored past that night.
According to Oliver Kahn, Ferguson tried to convince him to swap Munich for Manchester a few years after Schmeichel had left, but the German goalkeeper didn’t want to leave Bayern.
He joked that Ferguson still isn’t happy with his decision.
“Sir Alex Ferguson is still mad at me today,” Kahn told German publication Bild.
“He thought that I would move to Man Utd in 2003 or 2004, but I was more interested in trying to define an era at Bayern. Looking back, I should have done it then. It would have been a nice challenge for me.”
Kahn spent 14 years with Bayern, where he won eight Bundesliga titles, six German Cups and the Champions League in 2001. He also won the award for the best player at the 2002 World Cup for his role in helping Germany reach the final, where they lost 2-0 to Brazil. Only Ronaldo and Robbie Keane scored against Kahn in the tournament.
He is remembered as one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, and Ferguson evidently saw him as a worthy successor to Schmeichel, and a way to solve a problem position.
Before eventually signing Edwin van der Sar from Fulham in 2005, the United manager tried a succession of goalkeepers with little success. Mark Bosnich, Fabian Barthez, Tim Howard and Roy Carroll all failed to stake a convincing claim for the number one jersey.
In his second autobiography, Ferguson cites various reasons for his problems with goalkeepers following Schmeichel’s departure.
“From the minute Schmeichel left to join Sporting Lisbon in 1999 – and having missed out on Van der Sar – I was throwing balls in the air, hoping one would land in the right place. Raimond van der Gouw was a terrific, steady goalkeeper, and a very loyal and conscientious trainer, but he wouldn’t have been the No. 1 choice. Mark Bosnich was, in my opinion, a terrible professional, which we should have known. Massimo Taibi just didn’t work out and he returned to Italy, where he rejuvenated his career. Fabien Barthez was a World Cup winning goalkeeper, but it’s possible that the birth of his child back in France affected his concentration, because he was going back and forth a lot. He was a good lad, a fine shot-stopper and a good fielder of the ball. But when a keeper loses his concentration, he’s in trouble.”
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