Former star football player Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who now coaches one of his old clubs back home in Norway, was back in the headlines on Friday after leading Molde Football Club to an impressive 2-0 victory over Stuttgart on Thursday. Now he’s being talked about as a future star coach in England.
Some call Solskjær the most famous Norwegian since Thor Heyerdahl. His long and solid track record at top British club Manchester United made him a highly respected footballer in England, and now his coaching success is not only recognized but hailed.
“He has very high status her in England,” Mark Ogden, a sports reporter for The Telegraph, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Friday. “His success with Manchester United’s reserve team and with Molde is being noticed.”
Solskjær and the rest of his club colleagues and fans at Molde were mighty pleased with the results of the club’s latest match in Europa League action. “We were lucky in periods, but we play a type of football we know we’re good at,” Solskjær told TV station MAX after the match. “This was good.”
Molde had lost its first Europa League match against FC København so needed a victory over the German club. Two “super goals” made the difference, the first created partly by Daniel BergHestad and Martin Linnes and kicked in by Jo Inge Berget.
That gave the team confidence that a victory was possible and newspaper Aftenposten reported that while Stuttgart players “tried and tried,” they didn’t manage to get past Molde’s compact defense. Instead, Magnus Wolf Eikrem passed to Magnus Moström who then fed Daniel Chima Chukwu and the second goal was secured.
Norwegian sports reporters claimed the victory was well-deserved. Another Norwegian team playing in the Europa League, Rosenborg, didn’t have nearly as good a night, losing 1-0 against Bayer Leverkusen.
Norwegian football expert Lars Tjærnås called the Molde result “very strong,” not least since it came against a major club in one of Europe’s best leagues. “There’s no doubt that Solskjær’s CV was strengthened yesterday,” Tjærnås told NRK.no.
Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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