Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a famous Norwegian footballer. Most of his career played for the famous English club Manchester United as a striker, becoming one of its legends. At the end of his player career, he chose a coaching career. Today he is acting as the head coach of his native club of the "red devils", becoming a real sensation.
Biography
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was born in the small commune of Kristiansund in southern Norway on February 26, 1973. In early childhood, following the example of his father, he was engaged in wrestling. But later he really got carried away with the ball game. The first team in which the future star managed to prove himself was the Norwegian Klausenengen. After graduating from the academy, he made his debut at the foundation of this club in 1990.
Career
For his home team, Solskjaer played a total of more than 110 matches, in which he scored about 115 goals. In 1995, he was noticed by the breeders of Molde, a club from the top division of Norway. In this club, Solskjaer spent two full seasons and played over 50 matches, consistently scoring in almost every game. Thanks to his brilliant performances at Molde, Ole was honored to represent the colors of his country at international competitions. And later European giants began to hunt for him, among which was Manchester United.
Manchester United
Solskjaer's best years as a player were spent in the Red Devils camp. Sir Alex Ferguson, spotting the talented guy in the summer of 1996, immediately went to negotiations with the management of the Molde club and, having paid £ 1.5 million, agreed on Solskjaer's transfer to Manchester United.
Ole Gunnar had an easy transition. He scored his debut goal for the Reds in his first leg on 25 August against Blackburn. Appearing on the field after the substitution and spending only 6 minutes on the field, he managed to hit the opponent's goal. During the season, the talented footballer began to appear regularly on the field in the starting lineup and played a total of 46 matches, in which he successfully assaulted the opponent's goal 19 times, thereby becoming the top scorer of the Red Devils of the season. In the same season, Ole won the gold medal in the main championship of England for the first time.
In the following seasons, Solskjaer began to find himself more often out of the starting application. However, he was not a ballast for the team. Moreover, Sir Alex saw in him a "joker" who, as a substitute, could easily decide the outcome of the match in favor of Manchester United. Many football commentators, English coaches and fans have nicknamed Ole "Super Reserve".
The legendary 1999 Champions League final was not without the Joker. By the end of the fight, Sir Alex's side was 0-1 behind Bayern Munich, and Ferguson released Solskjaer in 81 minutes. Already in the minutes added by the referee, the “devils” were able to equalize the score, and just before the whistle, after the corner, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer set the score 2-1, which became the victorious one for the “Red Devils”. After this match, Sir Alex named Solskjaer "King of substitutions".
At the end of 2007, Ole announced his retirement as a football player. He took up his personal life and began to spend more time with his family - he has a wonderful wife and three children. The youngest child, daughter Karna, was born in 2003. Since 2008 he started to coach young Manchester United players. In 2011 he returned to Molde.
Present time
In 2018, following Jose Mourinho's dismissal from Manchester United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was invited to become the head coach of this club until the end of the season. Rumor has it that the appearance of the "joker" in the "Theater of Dreams" was not without the participation of Sir Alex himself. In a word, the wise mentor of the “red devils” again took his “joker”, or, as it was also called, the “killer with the face of a baby” out of his sleeve, and he again instantly corrected the difficult situation for the club.
Lately Manchester United have often disappointed their fans. A weak game, sad numbers on the scoreboard even in matches with outsiders, conflicts within the team - all this disappeared, as if by magic, with the arrival of Ole. And on January 13, 2019, Solskjaer broke the legendary Busby's record for his sixth consecutive victory since being appointed coach.
