Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - The Biography of a Manchester United Legend by Macleay Ian

Author:Macleay, Ian [Macleay, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781789461428
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2019-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

9

TRIUMPH AND DISASTER

‘If you walked into the dressing room and you didn’t know who he was, you would assume Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a lost YTS player.’

RIO FERDINAND

Ole returned to Norway at the end of July in a pre-season friendly against Valerenga, forming part of the Reds’ pre-season European tour. The game had been set up the previous February to mark the 30th anniversary of the Norway Cup. It was the world’s largest international tournament for youngsters and the organisers had pulled a major coup in landing Manchester United.

A packed crowd of 30,000 in the Ullevaal Stadium saw their returning hero open the scoring for United. Ole scored from the penalty spot, the only recorded goal that he converted from a spot-kick in a competitive Manchester United game. He had scored penalties for Norway, the previous one coming against Turkey in a 1-1 draw the previous August. The former United triallist Pa Modou Kah equalised for a lively Valerenga in the second half before Roy Keane scored the winner.

Ole was concerned about the state of the game in his homeland; his major fear was that there was not enough young talent coming up through the youth sides. He told VG, ‘Every time I travel home to Kristiansund, I am reminded that there is less and less football played in Norway. The football pitches are not fit any longer… many kids just sit around with their computers. We must not struggle with the recruitment. We cannot let the sport in Norway die out.’

On their day, Norway were a strong side and a team featuring Ole, Henning Berg, John Arne Riise and Jo Tessem had recently beaten the World Cup co-hosts Japan 3-0 in Oslo. The high spot of the evening was a great goal by Ole six minutes from time. It was a very small consolation for them not being able to sample the Japanese hospitality as they had failed to qualify.

Ole then took part in the Champions League qualifying match against the Hungarian side Zalaegerszeg. Having only finished third in the Premiership, the former holders faced the ignominy of having to play in the qualifying round. In the fourth minute, Ole had a great strike on goal but the ball rebounded off the foot of the post. That was the story of the game as United created and squandered a series of chances. Eventually, a last-minute goal by Koplarovic, after a silly mistake by Phil Neville, made the situation even more embarrassing.

Manchester United opened the new Premiership campaign with a turnover of £129.5 million and a wage bill of £49.97 million. On the opening day of the 2002/03 season, Ole finally scored his 100th goal for United in the home fixture against West Bromwich Albion. Fittingly, it was a late winner scored when he came off the bench. Trademark Ole.

West Brom defended stubbornly throughout the match and looked like they might steal a point. Ole came into the match on the hour to replace the tiring Verón, who earlier had treated the fans to some exhibitionist passing.

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