Farewell to 2OLEgend.

What a sad day.

One of my all-time favorite United players, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has finally lost his battle to injury and has announced his retirement from football today at the age of 34. It's extremely sad that we will never be able to see him score another goal again especially since he contributed so much to our Premiership win last season and I was really looking forward to a great full season for him this year.

Many of us will remember him as the Baby-faced Assassin, and rightly so considering he STILL looks younger than Rooney even now! I for one, will never forget the way he came to United as an unknown from Molde, scoring on his debut, and then making a name for himself by scoring many many other goals since then. His retirement will be a loss to United as he embodied everything that was good about Manchester United, and is a Red Devil through and through.

3 Solksjaer goals will always stand out for me in his career:

1) His debut goal against Blackburn in the Autumn of 1996 in a 2-2 draw, scoring the rebound after an initially volley was saved. In his interview, he stated that the very next moment, he realized his dream was coming true when Eric Cantona was the first to run over and celebrate with him.

2) The winning goal against Liverpool at Old Trafford in the 5th round of the FA Cup, January 1999, on our way to the Treble. Michael Owen's early goal made it look like we were heading for a humiliating defeat, but Yorke's 80+ minute equalizer hauled us back and then Ole lobanged Carragher for good measure to win it at the death. Just before I had to book in.

And brag to my Liverpool-supporting army friends. ;)

3) The goal that wrote us into the record books.... as the ONLY (I stress ONLY to all you Liverpudlians) team to have won the Treble. All looked lost at the Nou Camp for 85 minutes after Basler's free kick but being typical United, we never gave up and Teddy made it Even Stevens, before his header from the last corner of the game landed on Solskjaer's right boot.

"..... and Solskjaer has won it!"

2 of these 3 moments can be seen in this video below, the other being the 12-minute 4-goal salvo at Nottingham Forest.



A more comprehensive look at his career can be seen in the following links, split into 3 parts.

OGS Compilation Part 1
OGS Compilation Part 2
OGS Compilation Part 3



"You are my Solskjaer, my only Solskjaer, you make me happy, when skies are grey! Well Alan Shearer, was f*cking dearer, please don't take, my Solskjaer away!!"