“It was a wrong choice to bring Ronaldo to Man. Unidos in 2021”
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spoke about his time working with the Portuguese star when he was coaching the ‘Red Devils’
Cristiano Ronaldo surprised the football world when he returned to Manchester United in 2021 after three seasons at Juventus . Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the Red Devils ‘ manager at the time, but was sacked at the start of the 2021/22 season after more than three years in charge.
Now, in an interview with Norwegian portal NRK , Solskjaer, who curiously was a teammate of Ronaldo when the Portuguese arrived in Manchester in 2003, regretted the decision to sign the Portuguese forward: «It was probably the wrong choice for all of us. But we felt it was the right decision at that moment.»
The coach, who has not coached since leaving Man. United, also recalled that Kieran McKenna, current Ipswich coach and who at the time worked in the United technical team, did not approve the signing of the Portuguese forward. It should be remembered that, before signing for United in 2021, Ronaldo was linked with Manchester City .
In the same interview, Solskjaer recalled the good results he achieved at United (where he had arrived to fill the gap left by José Mourinho): «I’m proud of what I did. I have to say I think it was very good and we were on the way to achieving something very good. We finished third and second in the Premier League , we reached a series of semi-finals and, unfortunately, we lost the final [of the Europa League , against Villarreal ]».
Cristiano Ronaldo started his season back at Old Trafford well, scoring twice in his first game against Newcastle . But the team’s losses began to mount and after a heavy defeat to Watford (1-4) in November, Solskjaer was sacked and the club then hired Ralf Rangnick until the end of the season.
At the start of the 2022/23 season, Erik ten Hag arrived at the club, with whom Ronaldo ended up falling out, which led to his contract termination and eventual move to Al Nassr , in December 2022, where he has been since then.
