Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has expressed his interest in becoming the next manager of the Norwegian national team.
Solskjaer has not returned to a formal role in football since his three-year spell in charge of United ended in November 2021, but could be tempted back if his country calls.
The 51-year-old, who values ​​a quiet family life in his remote hometown, has been careful not to plunge back into management for something that might not be the right fit.
Stale Solbakken is Norway’s current boss and has been since 2020. And while Solskjaer is keen not to step on any stops, he would not rule out holding talks if the position were to become vacant.
“I’m a proud Norwegian. If the question arises, when Stale finds out he doesn’t want it anymore, I’m happy to enter into a conversation,” Solskjaer said in a presentation at the Oslo Business Forum..
“It just has to be the right job and it depends on working with the right people.”
Solskjaer also admitted he would “say yes every day of the week” if he was ever asked to return to Old Trafford.
Although he had his critics in English football, Solskjaer was an excellent club manager in Norway during two spells at Molde.
Before his ill-fated spell at Cardiff City, he won league titles in 2011 and 2012, the club’s first two. They won a third within months of leaving for Wales in 2014 and, after returning for a second spell, a fourth in similar fashion a year after he left for Manchester in 2018.
Emerging towards the end of a golden generation of the early to mid-1990s, Solskjaer scored 23 goals in 67 appearances for Norway during an international career that spanned 12 years. He played in the World Cup in 1998, as well as Euro 2000 two years later.
Since then, Norway has not qualified for a major tournament. But with Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard spearheading a new generation that features several players from clubs in Europe’s top five leagues, there is renewed hope ahead of an expanded World Cup in 2026.
