FORMER Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel was forced to issue an apology after furiously confronting a ball boy during Denmark’s Euro 2024 qualifier against San Marino on Tuesday.
Midway through the match, Schmeichel, 36, ran up to the young boy and berated him for not throwing the ball back quick enough.
According to Danish newspaper Se og Hør, the goalkeeper allegedly said: “Give me the ball you f***ing p****!”
When asked about the confrontation after the match, Danish outlet Bold.dk claims he said: “During the match, you say a lot of things. That’s part of it.”
Schmeichel took to Instagram to offer a formal apology the following day.
He wrote: “In a heated moment I went over the line and used the wrong choice of words to a ball boy during the game yesterday.
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“As everyone knows, being a role model for children means everything to me, and I do everything to live up to that.
“Here I failed, and for that I am sorry and apologise.”
Denmark went on to win the match 2-1 thanks to goals from Rasmus Hojlund and Yussuf Poulsen.
However, several players were left unhappy.
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Denmark captain Simon Kjaer claimed in his post-match interview that he overheard opposition players telling each other to “go for Hojlund’s knees”.
Hojlund then gave his take as he accused the San Marino players of carrying out a planned attack on him.
He said: “I feel they targeted me, as you can see at the end.
“I understand Italian and I could hear them saying that they had the idea to crush me.
“You can see from the images that he only had one idea in mind.”
In response, San Marino defender Alessandro Tosi said: “That’s not true.
“We only told him that he was not behaving properly. What he did was not necessary. He is a very strong striker, but he was not fair at all.
“I haven’t lost respect for him completely, but we expected better behaviour. His behaviour when celebrating was unacceptable.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk