I knew I was going to score, says Solskjaer
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Even now it still happens on a daily basis. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer quickly discovered that, when you have scored the winning goal in a Champions League final, there will never be a shortage of people wanting to remind you about it. Grown men clasp his hand and bearhug him. Nearly always he can guess what they are going to say.
"They say, 'Thanks for giving me the best night of my life'," he says. "Then they usually add, 'but please don't tell my wife.' That's the comment they always come up with - 'It was even better than my wedding night' - and after a while you actually start believing it.
"You come to understand that it was a great, great night for many, many people. I didn't realise that at the time. I just played a game, won a game. But over time you realise just how big a moment it was."
It is nine years since Solskjaer jabbed out his right foot to score the most famous goal in Manchester United's history. In Sir Alex Ferguson's office there is a framed copy of Clive Tyldesley's television commentary throughout those three crazy minutes of stoppage-time, culminating in the immortal line: "And Solskjaer has done it!" But the goalscorer himself is less showy. There are few memorabilia at his house in Cheshire and he says he has never watched the game against Bayern Munich from start to finish, only the final 15 minutes on one occasion with his parents in Norway.
He has, however, seen the winning goal "maybe a thousand times" and his eyes sparkle as he remembers the part of his anatomy that changed his life for ever. "My big toe," he says. "I've scored a lot of goals. But the one that night was just a lucky moment. Ninety-nine times out of 100 it would have gone into the hands of [Oliver] Kahn or on the head of the guy on the line."
Solskjaer, as was so often the case, had been a substitute that night at Camp Nou. "At half-time," he recalls, "the manager went over to Teddy Sheringham to tell him to get ready to come on. I was in the background, hoping that he would come over to me, too. But he didn't. He just had a chat with everyone to say we should leave with no regrets: 'If we walk out of here losing, you have to walk past that cup without touching it. You can't touch it. That's the worst feeling in football. Just don't let yourselves down and give 100%.'"
The most prolific substitute in football was on the bench for another 35 minutes before Ferguson finally gave him the nod. "I was just warming up and warming up, waiting and waiting and trying to catch his eye. I was a bit - not frustrated but 'why don't you put me on?'"
Solskjaer remembers being "springy" as he sprinted on. "That was always a good sign," he says. "I can see from the way I ran on that I thought I was going to score. I knew something would happen. I'd even phoned my best mate that afternoon to tell him. He had a night shift - he's a nurse in Trondheim - and was due to start at 10 o'clock [nine o'clock English time] so he didn't think he would see the last half-hour. But I made sure he got someone to step in for him. I said to him: 'Something big is going to happen tonight.'"
He admits that United, 1-0 down, were fortunate still to be in the game when he came on with 10 minutes to go. "We have to be honest and say that Bayern Munich were the better team, at least for 85 minutes. We rode our luck as they hit the crossbar, hit the post. We never had a strike on target for 80 minutes."
But then the game turned upside-down. "When Teddy equalised everyone ran to him to celebrate, except me," says Solskjaer. "I ran straight back to the half-way line. I was thinking, 'Right, extra-time, this is something I'm going to savour, learn from, enjoy.' And then I ruined it, I suppose."
His celebratory knee-slide was subsequently reported to have caused the cartilage injury that ended his career. "That's a myth," he says. "I did get a medial ligament injury but that's nothing in football terms - three weeks, maybe. I didn't feel it, though. My mind was blank. I've seen it on television as I was running down there, sliding, but I cannot remember what I was thinking."
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His celebratory knee-slide was subsequently reported to have caused the cartilage injury that ended his career.
wow, i did not know this myth....
i even have the tshirt to show him doing the slide..
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miss him...
but glad he is still hanging around at the club. -
though a man utd supporter at that time. but its crap.
when you scored, you can say that i knew i was going to score.
when you didn't, it will be a different story altogether.
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For those old enough to remember '99 : The biggest irony of it all was, Solskjaer was supposed to have been a Tottenham player had Fergie had his way (a deal had actually been struck with Spurs only for Solskjaer to insist on staying at United to fight for his place) - so much for foresight. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sport/football/fa_carling_premiership/155822.stm
Who'd have expected Ferguson to bank on someone he didn't count on to actually deliver the most glorious night in his magnificent career?
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we need someone like him..
a loyal servant to the club..