Ole Gunnar Solskjær is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Premier League club Manchester United. He 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 run of performances during the 2021–22 season.
