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{"parse":{"title":"Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r","pageid":194455,"text":{"*":"

\n\n

Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r
Personal information
\n Solskj\u00e6r as Molde manager in 2011
Full name	\nOle Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r^[1]
Date of birth	\n (1973-02-26) 26 February 1973 (age 51)^[2]
Place of birth	\nKristiansund, Norway
Height	\n1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)^[2]
Position(s)	\nForward
Team information
Current team	\nBe\u015fikta\u015f (head coach)
Youth career
1980\u20131990	\nClausenengen
Senior career\"
Years	\nTeam	\nApps	\n(Gls)
1990\u20131995	\nClausenengen	\n109	\n(115)
1995\u20131996	\nMolde	\n42	\n(31)
1996\u20132007	\nManchester United	\n235	\n(91)
Total	\n	\n386	\n(237)
International career
1994\u20131995	\nNorway U21	\n19	\n(13)
1995\u20132007	\nNorway	\n67	\n(23)
Managerial career
2011\u20132014	\nMolde
2014	\nCardiff City
2015\u20132018	\nMolde
2018\u20132021	\nManchester United
2025\u2013	\nBe\u015fikta\u015f
\n\"Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r (Norwegian pronunciation: [\u02c8\u00fb\u02d0l\u0259 \u02c8\u0261\u0289\u0302n\u02d0\u0251r \u02c8s\u00fb\u02d0l\u0282\u00e6\u02d0r] ^\u24d8; born 26 February 1973) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who currently manages S\u00fcper Lig club Be\u015fikta\u015f. He spent the majority of his playing career with Manchester United and also made 67 appearances for the Norway national team. \n

A forward, Solskj\u00e6r 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 \u00a31.5 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\u20130 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.^[3]^[4] Failing to recover from the injury, Solskj\u00e6r announced his retirement from football in 2007.^[5]\n

Solskj\u00e6r remained at Manchester United in a coaching role as well as in an ambassadorial capacity. In 2008, Solskj\u00e6r 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 Solskj\u00e6r as caretaker manager, taking over from Jos\u00e9 Mourinho for the rest of the 2018\u201319 season.^[6] On 28 March 2019, having won 14 of his 19 matches in charge, Solskj\u00e6r signed a three-year contract to take over as Manchester United manager on a permanent basis.^[7] He took Manchester United to the 2021 UEFA Europa League final, which they lost to Villarreal after a penalty shoot-out. He was sacked by the club in November 2021 following a poor run of performances during the 2021\u201322 season.^[8] In January 2025, after 3 years away from management, Solskj\u00e6r joined Turkish S\u00fcper Lig club Be\u015fikta\u015f^[9]\n

\n\n

Club\n	Season\n	League\n	National cup^[a]\n	League cup^[b]\n	Europe\n	Other\n	Total\n
Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals\n
Clausenengen^{[citation needed]}\n	1990\n	Norwegian Third Division Group E\n					\u2014	\u2014	\u2014		\n
1991\n	Norwegian Third Division Group M\n					\u2014	\u2014	\u2014		\n
1992\n	Norwegian Third Division Group M\n					\u2014	\u2014	\u2014		\n
1993\n	Norwegian Third Division Group M\n					\u2014	\u2014	\u2014		\n
1994\n	Norwegian Second Division Group 5\n					\u2014	\u2014	\u2014		\n
Total\n	109	115			\u2014	\u2014	\u2014	109	115\n
Molde^[262]\n	1995\n	Tippeligaen\n	26	20	4	6	\u2014	4^[c]	3	\u2014	34	29\n
1996\n	Tippeligaen\n	16	11	4	1	\u2014	\u2014	\u2014	20	12\n
Total\n	42	31	8	7	\u2014	4	3	\u2014	54	41\n
Manchester United^[263]\n	1996\u201397\n	Premier League\n	33	18	3	0	0	0	10^[d]	1	0	0	46	19\n
1997\u201398\n	Premier League\n	22	6	2	2	0	0	6^[d]	1	0	0	30	9\n
1998\u201399\n	Premier League\n	19	12	8	1	3	3	6^[d]	2	1^[e]	0	37	18\n
1999\u20132000\n	Premier League\n	28	12	\u2014	1	0	11^[d]	3	6^[f]	0	46	15\n
2000\u201301\n	Premier League\n	31	10	2	1	2	2	11^[d]	0	1^[e]	0	47	13\n
2001\u201302\n	Premier League\n	30	17	2	1	0	0	15^[d]	7	0	0	47	25\n
2002\u201303\n	Premier League\n	37	9	2	1	4	1	14^[d]	4	\u2014	57	15\n
2003\u201304\n	Premier League\n	13	0	3	0	0	0	2^[d]	1	1^[g]	0	19	1\n
2004\u201305\n	Premier League\n	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0\n
2005\u201306\n	Premier League\n	3	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	\u2014	5	0\n
2006\u201307\n	Premier League\n	19	7	6	2	1	1	6^[d]	1	\u2014	32	11\n
Total\n	235	91	30	8	11	7	81	20	9	0	366	126\n
Career total\n	386	237	38	15	11	7	85	23	9	0	529	282\n

National team	Year	Apps	Goals\n
Norway\n	1995	2	1\n
1996	6	3\n
1997	2	1\n
1998	9	3\n
1999	8	5\n
2000	10	1\n
2001	7	3\n
2002	9	2\n
2003	7	2\n
2004	2	0\n
2006	4	2\n
2007	1	0\n
Total	67	23\n

No.\n	Date\n	Venue\n	Opponent\n	Score\n	Result\n	Competition\n
1	26 November 1995	Kingston, Jamaica	$\"\"$ Jamaica	1\u20130	1\u20131	Friendly\n
2	27 March 1996	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	$\"\"$ Northern Ireland	1\u20130	2\u20130	Friendly\n
3	2 June 1996	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	$\"\"$ Azerbaijan	2\u20130	5\u20130	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification\n
4	5\u20130\n
5	30 April 1997	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	$\"\"$ Finland	1\u20131	1\u20131	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification\n
6	25 March 1998	King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium	$\"\"$ Belgium	2\u20132	2\u20132	Friendly\n
7	27 May 1998	Molde Stadion, Molde, Norway	$\"\"$ Saudi Arabia	2\u20130	6\u20130	Friendly\n
8	3\u20130\n
9	27 March 1999	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece	$\"\"$ Greece	1\u20130	2\u20130	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification\n
10	2\u20130\n
11	28 April 1999	Boris Paichadze National Stadium, Tbilisi, Georgia	$\"\"$ Georgia	3\u20130	4\u20131	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification\n
12	8 September 1999	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	$\"\"$ Slovenia	3\u20130	4\u20130	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification\n
13	9 October 1999	Daugava Stadium, Riga, Latvia	$\"\"$ Latvia	1\u20130	2\u20131	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification\n
14	27 May 2000	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	$\"\"$ Slovakia	1\u20130	2\u20130	Friendly\n
15	24 March 2001	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	$\"\"$ Poland	2\u20132	2\u20133	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification\n
16	28 March 2001	Dinamo Stadium, Minsk, Belarus	$\"\"$ Belarus	1\u20131	1\u20132	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification\n
17	15 August 2001	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	$\"\"$ Turkey	1\u20130	1\u20131	Friendly\n
18	14 May 2002	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	$\"\"$ Japan	3\u20130	3\u20130	Friendly\n
19	22 May 2002	Aspmyra Stadion, Bod\u00f8, Norway	$\"\"$ Iceland	1\u20131	1\u20131	Friendly\n
20	2 April 2003	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	$\"\"$ Luxembourg	2\u20130	2\u20130	UEFA Euro 2004 qualification\n
21	11 June 2003	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	$\"\"$ Romania	1\u20131	1\u20131	UEFA Euro 2004 qualification\n
22	2 September 2006	Szusza Ferenc Stadion, Budapest, Hungary	$\"\"$ Hungary	1\u20130	4\u20131	UEFA Euro 2008 qualification\n
23	4\u20130\n

Team\n	From\n	To\n	Record\n	Ref.\n
P	W	D	L	Win %\n
Molde\n	9 November 2010\n	2 January 2014\n	126\n	69\n	27\n	30\n	054.76\n	^{[citation needed]}\n
Cardiff City\n	2 January 2014\n	18 September 2014\n	30\n	9\n	5\n	16\n	030.00\n	^{[citation needed]}\n
Molde\n	21 October 2015\n	19 December 2018\n	118\n	66\n	20\n	32\n	055.93\n	^{[citation needed]}\n
Manchester United\n	19 December 2018\n	21 November 2021\n	168\n	91\n	37\n	40\n	054.17\n	^{[citation needed]}\n
Be\u015fikta\u015f\n	18 January 2025\n	Present\n	6\n	4\n	1\n	1\n	066.67\n	^[266]\n
Total\n	448\n	239\n	90\n	119\n	053.35\n	\n

Authority control databases $\"Edit$
International	ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat
National	United States Norway Poland

Early life

Club career

Early career at Clausenengen

Molde

1995 season

1996 season

Manchester United

1996\u201397 season: Debut

1997\u201398 season

1998\u201399 season: Continental Treble

1999\u20132000 season

2000\u201301 season

2001\u201302 season

2002\u201303 season

2003\u201306: Injury-plagued seasons

2006\u201307 season: Back from injury

2008: Testimonial

Super sub role

International career

Style of play and reception

Managerial career

First step into coaching

Molde

Cardiff City

Return to Molde

Return to Manchester United

2018\u201319 season: Caretaker period and permanent appointment

2019\u201320 season: Improved league form and Cup Semi-Finals

2020\u201321 season: 2nd in the league and Europa League Final

2021\u201322 season: Dip in performances and departure

Be\u015fikta\u015f

Personal life

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Manager

References

External links

Ole Gunnar Solskjær

Media collections