Cristiano Ronaldo was in the news for his speech during the collection of the ‘Quinas de Ouro’ award in which he let it be known that his retirement is close and that perhaps it will come before the 1,000 goals, but today it was not him who spoke, but one of his former coaches. Ole Gunnar Solskjær managed the Portuguese for a few months at Manchester United, until the Norwegian was replaced.
The Portuguese striker landed in England from Juventus, in a reunion that seemed ideal, due to the price (17 million euros) and his sporting performance (he had just scored 36 goals for Juventus). However, the talent crusher that the red team has become ended the fairy tale just a season and a half later. Solskjær acknowledged in the Norwegian media ‘NRK’ that perhaps it was not a wise decision: “It was probably a wrong decision for all of us, but we had the feeling that at that moment it was the right decision.”
Cristiano with Solskjær during a match with Manchester United.AP
A few months ago, Ole also commented on the change that the arrival of the striker brought to the team in an interview with Gary Neville: “We didn’t have any problems with the ball with him, but we had to change the different roles we had become accustomed to in the pressing “We were one of the teams that put the most pressure before he arrived.”
If he had signed for City he would have scored more goals than Haaland
And not only at a tactical level, but the Norwegian coach also spoke of an impact on the locker room: “I think it affected the dynamic. Maybe many other players felt less important because, logically, a world superstar had arrived.”
On the verge of leaving for City
‘CR7’ spent 12 games under Solskjær, in which he scored 9 goals and distributed 2 assists. Everything went wrong with the arrival of Erik Ten Hag, but Cristiano was about to land on the other side of Manchester before all this happened. “He is one of the best players in the world in the last 15 years. If he had signed for City he would have scored more goals than Haaland,” Solskjær said a few months ago.
For his part, Erling is captaining Norway now after Martin Odegaard’s injury, but with little success, as his country lost 5-1 to Austria in their first match with the armband. Even so, Ole sees him prepared: “He has the personality for it.”
As for his future, the coach sees himself prepared for a national team and, although England did not contact him with the dismissal of Southgate, he believes he may have a future in national football. Maybe Norway or maybe another, who knows.
