PETER SCHMEICHEL has revealed his torment at slamming the door in his alcoholic dad’s face – admitting it is the “worst thing” he has ever done.
And the Manchester United legend said his father became a double agent after being recruited as a Cold War spy.
Danish keeper Schmeichel won five Premier League titles and the Champions League in eight glorious years at Old Trafford.
He went on to play for Sporting Lisbon, Aston Villa and Manchester City before retiring in 2003.
Schmeichel, 57, has now revealed his family troubles in his autobiography, entitled One, which is due out tomorrow.
Copenhagen daily Ekstra Bladet published extracts of the book on Wednesday.
The 129-cap international, father of Leicester goalie Kasper, tells how his musician dad Tolek falls into deep trouble with alcoholism in late 1999.
Schmeichel was then with Sporting and living near Lisbon, and his sister and mum had taken refuge from Tolek with him.
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However despite the keeper keeping his address secret, Polish-born Tolek showed up one night.
Schmeichel writes: “When I opened the front door of my house in Cascais, my dad was standing on the porch.
“I shone a torch in his face, and asked him: ‘What do you want?’ My father smiled: ‘My family, my family.’
“I raised my voice. ‘What the hell do you want? You’re not welcome. Nobody wants to see you here. Go home, go home.’
“Eventually I slammed the door in his face. Hard. My sister was in the hallway, and my mum was in the kitchen.
“My heart was in my throat, and my stomach hurt with anger and pain. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
Tolek flew back to Denmark the next day and went straight into rehab – not touching a drop of booze for the rest of his life.
They sent him on spy courses in Warsaw.
Peter Schmeichel
Schmeichel added: “I’m still shaking at the thought of him standing at my door. But I think that helped save my father’s life.
“Dad got 20 more years, 20 good years. In the end he was not well.
“But he lived until he was almost 86, and he was happy with his final decades.”
Schmeichel also tells how Tolek was forced to spy for Poland in order to be allowed to move to Denmark with his Danish wife Inger.
The ex-keeper writes: “His only way out of the country was to cooperate with the Polish intelligence service.
“They sent him on spy courses in Warsaw, where he learned techniques so he could work undercover in foreign environments.
“They gave him a list of contacts, and judged that he was finally ready. ‘You can go to Copenhagen’, they said, ‘but you have to spy on the Danes.'”
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Schmeichel says Tolek arrived in Denmark in 1961, but soon contacted local police and intelligence services.
He was allowed to remain in the country with Inger on condition that he acted as a double agent.
Schmeichel himself was born two years later at Gladsaxe, near Copenhagen.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
