The 35-year-old Dane is leaving the FA Premiership at the end of the season and will begin talks next week with clubs all over Europe.

Udinese spokesman Zigfried Marcati said: "It is true that we have looked into Peter Schmeichel's possible future plans. Normally we go for young players and if they are successful, they usually move on to one of the bigger Italian clubs.

"But that is no reason why our policy should not change from time to time. We need big-name players as well in order to compete."

Schmeichel's form has been unusually patchy for United in recent months, with some glaring mistakes sprinkled among the usual inspirational saves, but his reputation survives intact..

Clubs queue up

His agent Ole Frederiksen said: "The interest for Peter has been far larger even than we had dreamed it might be."Inquiries have come, in particular, from clubs in the southern part of Europe - Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.

"Now we are getting ready to look at the clubs which have declared an interest, but that will not happen until early January.

He added: "Peter has been treated extremely fairly by United from the point at which he made his decision to try a career change in a new and warmer country.

"Therefore we will follow the rules and not start talking to potential new clubs until we are allowed to, which is this weekend."