Leicester City’s Kasper Schmeichel opens DMU’s Watershed building

Because it is the position that in my opinion is the hardest to play in, the one with the most responsibility. It’s the one where if you make a mistake, it will cost the team and I like that responsibility, I like that kind of pressure.

It was different, very different. I came from Leeds and Leeds as everyone knows is a very big club, but Leeds itself was going through a transitional phase and probably still going through a transitional phase. But it was a phase, where a lot of players where coming in and out of the door and it was difficult for the fans to, I think welcome the players. I never felt at home there, it was a strange kind of feeling, I never felt welcomed there. From the moment I walked in here (LCFC) I felt welcomed and I felt needed. From the moment I met Khun Vichai and Top the way they welcomed me, the way the fans welcomed me, the way club kind of portrayed itself was a club that wanted to go somewhere. But they had the infrastructure, the backing of the fans, the backing of the owners. You never felt lonely. There were times at Leeds, where you felt very alone and having had that experience and to come here was such a motivating thing.

I think there were two point for me. One was when we won away at Swansea to be top at Christmas, who were beaten 3-0 quite convincingly. And then beating Manchester City away 3-1, after that I know we weren’t giving that up. So those were the two main points for me, but there was just an inner calm an inner belief that what will be will be, no one was expecting anything of us, but we were expecting it.

I think any initiative to promote equality is good. I mean in football there must be someone and I hope one day they feel comfortable enough to share that and I think anything to get everyone involved and feel welcomed in sport is good.

Well I’ve got two young children so there’s not a lot of relaxation, there a lot of running after them. But my main thing probably is cooking, I enjoy cooking, I enjoy making food, I enjoy watching shows about that, that’s probably one of the random things. I enjoy driving, so yeah that’s probably the two things I do the most.

I would much rather play every four days, that’s why we’re in football to play games. But for me I would love to play every day if I could. That was actually one of the hardest things to get used to, moving to the Premier League was when you come from the Championship that there you play Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday always. So, the hardest thing to get used to is playing Saturday, Saturday, so getting a full week where you have no games. So, it’s usually prepping for one game and recovering and prepping and its just rolls and rolls. Whereas now you actually how to make sure you don’t train too little or too much, you have to find the right balance. But for me I would like to play every single time I could, it’s a short career so get as many games as you can.

You’ve got to remember we know the truth, what you hear is speculation, they don’t know the truth. So, yeah, the difference is that we can actually focus on what is real. I switch of Sky Sports and seen things about me and think where has that come from who in gods name has said that, you know. So, for me I have the team around me who knows what’s going on and what’s real and what’s not, so I don’t listen to what the media write or doesn’t write, because I know the truth.

So, the way I grew up it was very normal to win the Premier League for some reason. The Premier League trophy has been in my house a few times, so it wasn’t something that was unnatural. It was always something that I thought I would do. It was always a goal of mine, an ambition I always had the inner belief that I would win it. So, it’s not until you start playing that you realise how hard it is and how much work goes into it. To have won it is amazing, but the whole thing, winning it yourself, give you so much joy and I want to try to do something like that again because the feeling is amazing. Having someone win it that many times, you know, I’ve got some catching up to do.

I think the British football public has a general scepticism that comes to any new idea in football. I personally like it, I think it’s been great because it gets rid of the friendlies where you have ten players taken off at half-time and you know it becomes a bit of a reserve game. For a country like Denmark, competing in the Nations League, we were in category B, but now in Category A and that means that we can now play against Category A teams where we can fill our stadiums and if we fill our stadiums that means that the whole national team gets paid for. So, it’s really, important for a nation like ours. In England maybe where there’s a lot more funding, there a bigger population, you can go and play and fill 90 thousand, whereas if we get 30, 40 thousand we’re really happy in a small country like ours.

I chop and change all the time. At the moment coaching is appealing to me but who knows in 8- or 10-years’ time how I feel at the time. So, I think I keep my options open, football is very, very unpredictable. The last 6 weeks if it has taught me anything is that life is very unpredictable so for me, I’m not thinking that far ahead I’m thinking as they say these are the best days of your life, so enjoy them.

Sometimes you need people at the right time of your career and at the right time of your life and I met Vichai at the right time of my life. He was someone who was so powerful in the club but also someone who you could really talk to and the way he interacted with not just his players but the coaching staff, all the staff around the stadium. He was a proper example of what a leader, you always knew what he wanted and expected, but were never pressured. He was a larger than life type of character and if you lost, he’d say we’re going to win the next one. You can see from the reaction of the people in Leicester, what we’ve lost, the type of man that we’ve lost. He’s come to Leicester, brought the club, never take money, or asked for anything back, he’s just give, give, give. He’s someone I aspire to be like.