‘OLE WHO?’ It was the phone call Age Hareide had been dreading. The Molde boss knew how good Ole Solskjaer was, the question was when – not if – the big clubs would come calling. "Sir Alex phoned me up a lot to get my opinion on players in Norway," Hareide said. "He knew I knew the English scene and wanted my views on certain players and how they might do in England. Then, finally [July 1996] came the day when the
call was about one of my players. Sir Alex asked about Ole Gunnar. I knew we’d miss him badly, but you can't stand in a player's way when Manchester United come along. "I told him: `You've got to sign him.' And he did. United got him for £1.5 million! I think they owe me some money considering what they got!”NOU ORDER While the rest of us panicked, crossing what remained of our gnawed fingers, Ole was the calm at the eye of the Nou Camp storm. He was in the know, y’see. “It’s hard to explain, it was just a feeling,” he said of that staggering Treble-clinching climax. “It’s about positive thinking, maybe; you always visualise yourself scoring, so perhaps that’s all it was. But it was a little bit of a stronger feeling. I don’t know why. The goal? It’s one of those that you score one time out of five if you’re lucky, because you haven’t practised that finish. Yo
u just do it, you guide the ball on. More often that not it goes over the bar or it's cleared by the man on the far post. There were so many things that could have gone wrong with that finish… it was just instinct.” Killer instinct.THE COMEBACK KID An emotionally charged scene on a rainswept, south London night in August 2006: the game against Charlton was already in the bag, but United’s travelling fans celebrated the third and final goal like it was 1999. Their hero was back. Ole had scored for the first time since April 2003 (against Panathinaikos) and shared the love-in with United’s fans in Charlton’s Jimmy Seed Stand. “After three years out it was great for the fans, for the players and the supporters,” Sir Alex Ferguson said in the post-match after-glow. “Ole is a player who has persevered in trying time
s and he has never lost faith that he would get his repayment one day.OLE HANGS UP HIS BOOTS
“When my knee flared up in training it made the decision for me, because it means that I wouldn’t be able to play at the level I want to for this club,” Ole admits. “I also have to think about my long-term health as well. When I was out for so long before, it was always my ambition not only to play again and pull on the United shirt, but I also wanted to lift the Premier League trophy. That was my big dream. So, in that sense, last season was a fantastic experience for me and I’m glad I was able to enjoy that.”
THE BEST OF THE BEST?
So many highs, but the Nou Camp aside, which was the peak? Talking to this magazine in 2003, Ole revealed putting one over against the old enemy is always special. “My debut was a big moment, as was the first time we won the league after I arrived. The FA Cup final [in 1999] is a special game. The FA Cup match against Liverpool in the Treble season was a good one, too. The 3-0 away win in Juventus
captured from ManUtd.com(The Solskjaer Story)
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