The father of Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel was blackmailed to become a double agent during the height of Cold War, the former goalkeeper revealed.
Tolek Schmeichel was Polish-born and had married Inger, the mother of the footballer. He wanted to move to Denmark in the 1960s to start a new family but was told he could only do so if he agreed that he would operate as a spy for then Communist Poland.
Today’s Desert Island Discs episode on BBC Radio 4 features Schmeichel: ‘The condition for leaving Poland would be that he would spy upon Denmark. My father did not want to do that but eventually he realized that he would never leave Poland if he didn’t agree. So he accepted and was sent to Denmark via Berlin.
He added: “That was at the same time they were building it.” [Berlin]Wall, too. All that he went through was a shock. He was paranoid, and didn’t know how to proceed.
Peter Schmeichel and Laura von Lindholm in October 2017
Tolek surrendered himself to the authorities shortly after arriving to Denmark in 1961 to be married. Instead, the Danish government forced him to work as a double-agent.
Lauren Laverne, 57, asks Schmeichel about his experiences in Denmark. He reported himself eventually.
“They [the Danish] had no clue. They did not know what to do with this guy… they put him in a prison cell for only for a few days until they realised, ‘Well, we might be able to spy on Poland.’
“He didn’t want that, but he agreed because it would allow him to see his wife and be there for his first child’s birth. He became a double spy, or a double agent.
The father of Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel was blackmailed to become a double agent during the height of Cold War, the former goalkeeper revealed.
Schmeichel is popularly known as “The Great Dane” by his fans. He won five Premiership titles, three FA Cups, and the Champions League against Manchester United. He also won a European Championship with Denmark in 1992.
He does not believe that his father would be an effective spy.
He said, “I don’t know where he would find anything that would have been of any interest for anybody, any services in Poland that they couldn’t find out themselves,” “Once he arrived in Denmark, his entire life was work, work and more work.”
His father, who became a Danish citizen on 1970, died at 85. But his mother Inger is still in Copenhagen. Schmeichel married former Playboy model Laura von Lindholm in Denmark in 2019.
- Desert Island Discs will be on BBC Radio 4 at 11:15 AM today.