Ole Gunnar Solskjær
(Ole Gunnar Solskjaer)
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(2 users) Complete
60%Born
1973 (51 years old)
Birth Place
Kristiansund, NorwayPosition
Centre-Forward
Status
Retired
Ethnicity
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Height
179 cm
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Side
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Sport
SoccerTeam
_Retired Soccer
2nd Team
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_No League Soccer
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Ole Gunnar Solskjær KSO (Norwegian pronunciation: (listen); born 26 February 1973) is a Norwegian professional football manager whose most recent role was manager of Manchester United. He is also a former player who played as a forward. As a player, Solskjær spent the majority of his career with Manchester United and also played 67 times for the Norway national team.
Solskjær began his career in his native Norway with Clausenengen, for whom he scored 115 goals in 109 league appearances over five seasons, helping them earn promotion to the Norwegian Second Division in 1993, before moving to Molde, newly promoted to the Tippeligaen, for the 1995 season. His goals helped Molde to a second-place finish and qualification for the UEFA Cup. He joined Manchester United in July 1996 for a transfer fee of £1.5 million. Nicknamed "the Baby-faced Assassin", he played 366 times for United and scored 126 goals during a successful period for the club. He was regarded as a "super-sub" for his knack of coming off the substitute bench to score late goals. In added time at the end of the 1999 UEFA Champions League final, he scored the winning last-minute goal against Bayern Munich, with Manchester United having trailed 1–0 as the game passed 90 minutes, and winning the treble for United. He remained a regular player for the side until a serious knee injury sustained in 2003 permanently plagued his playing career. Failing to recover from the injury, Solskjær announced his retirement from football in 2007.
Solskjær remained at Manchester United in a coaching role as well as in an ambassadorial capacity. In 2008, Solskjær became the club's reserve team manager. He returned to his native country in 2011 to manage his former club, Molde, whom he led to their two first-ever Tippeligaen titles in his first two seasons with the club. He secured a third title when his team won the 2013 Norwegian Football Cup Final. In 2014, he served as manager of Cardiff City, during which the club was relegated from the Premier League. In late 2018, Manchester United appointed Solskjær as caretaker manager, taking over from José Mourinho for the rest of the 2018–19 season. On 28 March 2019, having won 14 of his 19 matches in charge, Solskjær signed a three-year contract to take over as Manchester United manager on a permanent basis. He took Manchester United to the 2021 UEFA Europa League final, where they lost to Villarreal on penalties. He was sacked by the club in November 2021 following a poor string of performances during the 2021–22 season.
Solskjær was born in Kristiansund, Møre og Romsdal to Øyvind, a Greco-Roman wrestling champion, and Brita Solskjær. At the age of seven, he joined local football club Clausenengen, who were in the 3. divisjon. Solskjær supported Liverpool as a child. Between the ages of eight and ten, he followed in his father's footsteps and trained as a Greco-Roman wrestler, but gave it up due to being tossed around too much. Between 1992 and 1993, Solskjær completed a mandatory year's national service in the Norwegian Army.
Solskjær made his international debut in a friendly match against Jamaica on 26 November 1995, just a few months before he joined Manchester United. The game finished in a 1–1 draw with Solskjær scoring the only goal for Norway. He continued his great goal scoring start by scoring three goals in his first competitive appearances for the national team during the 1998 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Solskjær played in both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000 for Norway. He formed a feared partnership with Tore André Flo which was seen as one of the best striking partnerships in Norway's history.
Following his lengthy layout to injuries Solskjær made his full game comeback on 2 September 2006, when he scored the first and last goals in a 4–1 win against Hungary in a Euro 2008 qualifying match. They would be his last goals for the national team taking his tally up to 23 goals.
On 7 February 2007, Solskjær made what proved to be his final appearance for Norway in a 2–1 defeat against Croatia, he finished with a total of 67 appearances for his country.
During his time as a player for Manchester United, Solskjær lived in Bramhall with his wife, Silje, and their three children, Noah, Karna and Elijah. Two of the children are footballers: Noah plays as a midfielder, while Karna plays for the Manchester United W.F.C. Academy team. She made her debut for the senior side in the 2021–22 Women's FA Cup against Bridgwater United, in doing so she and Ole became the first father-daughter pair to play for Manchester United.
On 24 October 2008, Solskjær was awarded the First Class Knighthood of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav by King Harald V of Norway. He was presented with the award in a ceremony the next day in his hometown of Kristiansund. Solskjær is the youngest ever recipient of the knighthood, usually bestowed upon notable members of society in their later years.
In 2009, the Norwegian parliament bestowed upon Solskjær its annual Peer Gynt Prize for his work as worthy ambassador of sport and for his "great social commitment", in a ceremony at Vinstra Hall. The ex-footballer laughingly admitted in the subsequent press conference that he had neither read nor seen the Ibsen play, yet, but now intends to.
Politically, he supports the Norwegian Labour Party and visited their congress in 2011. In a speech delivered there, he publicly pronounced his left-wing political sympathies.
Career Honours
Career Milestones
Former Youth Teams
Former Senior Teams
1995-1996 |
1995-2007 |
1996-2007 |
Former Club Staff
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2007-2008 Coach |
2011-2013 Manager |
2014-2014 Manager |
2015-2018 Manager |
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2018-2019 Caretaker Manager |
2019-2021 Manager |
Contracts
Fanart
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| Manchester United | Appearances | UEFA Champions League | 2000-2001 | 11 |
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| Manchester United | Appearances | English Premier League | 2000-2001 | 31 |
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| Manchester United | Goals | English Premier League | 2000-2001 | 10 |
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