The former teammates went into detail about what caused so much tension between them in the dressing room.
Roy Keane and Peter Schmeichel opened up about their infamous ‘hotel corridor scrap’ while on tour with Manchester United in the 1990s and told a humorous story about a press conference that took place the following day.
The Great Dane appeared on the latest episode of The Overlap’s Stick To Football podcast this week and spoke to Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Jill Scott and Jamie Carragher about how he came to sign for Manchester United and his friction with his ex-captain.
About halfway through the conversation, Neville asks the question everybody is waiting for: “Talk to us about how you ended up wrestling on the floor in a hotel corridor in Singapore with each other?”
Schmeichel responded: “You can take any footballer who has been in situations like that [fight], and I don’t see that as important. It irritates me that things like that are brought up sometimes because it’s so irrelevant.
“We were in Tokyo the next day and I had to do a press conference, and it was funny.
“I had a little scar, and the media asked where I got that from. Roy hurt me. They thought I was taking the piss, but it was just funny that we had to do that the next day.”
Keane then clarified that Schmeichel was reluctant to return the captain’s armband following his time out through injury, which increased the tension between the pair.
“Peter was upset and reluctant in giving my captaincy back to me,” he said.
“I was coming back and Peter Schmeichel was reluctant to give back the captaincy, which added another level to it.
“We were playing in Denmark and the manager said that he would leave Peter as is for pre-season because he was in his hometown. Then we played the Charity Shield, and you had a go after the match.
“I got the captaincy back in the end and that was it, but it was just the personalities,” Keane added. “I just thought Peter would say that I was back after an injury, and I could have my captaincy back. But he was reluctant.”
When asked who won the early morning hotel bout, Schmeichel diplomatically said: “There’s never a winner,” before Keane left a subtle hint that he had come out on top by turning and discreetly winking at Scott.
