Retirement is the one opponent every footballer loses to in the end. For most, the question is not whether it comes, but what on earth they do with themselves afterwards. Some go into coaching, some go into television, and some simply disappear.
Kasper Schmeichel is still deciding. The former Leicester and Celtic goalkeeper, who retired this summer, has spoken openly about the two very different directions he is considering. One involves streaming on Twitch or YouTube. The other involves running a football club.
Unemployed for the First Time
Schmeichel left Celtic in the summer after undergoing shoulder surgery and decided to call time on his playing career. He turns 40 at the start of November, and, as he put it himself, he is now unemployed for the first time in his life.
He has not rushed into anything. He said his new career would be good, but that he wanted to give himself time for it. He has a few ideas, some of which may or may not come to anything, and he hinted that something is coming without saying what.
Twitch or the Boardroom
The two options he mentioned could hardly be further apart.
The first is content creation. Schmeichel said he thought Twitch or YouTube could be interesting. That is a world a growing number of former players have moved into, and it is not hard to see why. Fans want access to footballers, and streaming gives them hours of it.
The second is far more traditional. He said he wanted to stay in football, that he is taking his coaching courses, and that he has enrolled on a FIFA executive programme designed to prepare people to run a football club.
It is quite a contrast. On one hand, a goalkeeper streaming to fans from his living room. On the other, a man in a suit making decisions about budgets, managers and recruitment.
A Career Worth Remembering
It is worth stopping for a moment to appreciate what Schmeichel achieved, because I think he is sometimes underrated.
He spent more than a decade at Leicester City, where he was part of one of the greatest stories in the history of the sport. Leicester won the Premier League in 2015/16, starting the season as 5,000-1 outsiders. He was a huge part of that title, and he wore the armband on the day Leicester won the FA Cup in 2021.
He also won 120 caps for Denmark, and he was outstanding at Euro 2020, when Denmark reached the semi-finals after the shock of Christian Eriksen’s collapse in their opening game. That run, and Schmeichel’s leadership in it, is one of my favourite tournament stories of recent years.
After leaving Leicester in 2022, he had spells at Nice and Anderlecht before joining Celtic, where he won two league titles and a League Cup. It is a career that most goalkeepers would dream of.
The Money Talk
One part of the interview stood out to me more than any other. Schmeichel spoke about money in a way you rarely hear from a footballer.
He said he was trying to teach his children that things cost money, and that everything in the world has become extremely expensive. He added that shopping costs a fortune.
He was also honest about his own position. He said he had been lucky, that he had grown up without lacking anything, and that money had never been his motivation. But he said money should be respected, and that if you work hard, you deserve it.
I liked that. It would have been easy for him to say nothing on the subject, or to pretend that a former Premier League goalkeeper worries about the weekly shop like everyone else. Instead, he acknowledged his privilege while still trying to pass on sensible values to his children.
Why Twitch Makes Sense
I think some people will laugh at the idea of Schmeichel on Twitch. I do not.
Football has changed. Former players with big personalities can build huge audiences online, often bigger than they would get as television pundits. Schmeichel has always been articulate, confident and willing to share opinions, which is exactly what works on those platforms.
He also comes from a football family. His father, Peter, is one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, and Kasper has grown up around the game at the very highest level. That gives him stories and insight that most streamers could only dream of.
Why Running a Club Makes Sense Too
The other path is just as interesting. Schmeichel has played in England, France, Belgium and Scotland, and he has seen how clubs are run in very different ways. He was part of a Leicester side that showed what a club can achieve with smart recruitment and a clear identity.
A goalkeeper also sees the game differently. He watches everything in front of him, organises the people around him and spends a lot of time thinking about structure. Those are not bad qualities for someone running a football club.
As a Palace fan, I have seen how much the people in the boardroom shape a club’s direction, often more than the manager or the players. A former player who understands the dressing room and the business side could be a real asset.
Could He Do Both?
There is no reason he has to choose straight away. Plenty of people now combine a media presence with a serious role in the game. A YouTube channel can build a profile, and a profile can open doors in football.
His final comments suggest he is in no rush. He said that, with no more shoulder surgeries ahead of him, his rehabilitation is in full swing, and that his goal is a family skiing holiday this winter.
That feels like a sensible place to start.
My Verdict
I think Schmeichel has earned the right to take his time. He has had a long, successful career, he has been through injuries, and he has nothing left to prove on the pitch.
Whichever path he takes, I suspect he will do it properly. He has always been a serious professional, and that does not tend to switch off when the boots come off.
The question is whether we will see him streaming from his living room or sitting in a boardroom first, and which of the two would surprise his old Leicester team-mates more.
