Ole: A Reds hero

On this day in 1996, a goalscoring legend made his debut for United – and fittingly got on the scoresheet.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a little-known signing from Norwegian side Molde, gave Reds fans a taste of things to come by fearlessly netting six minutes after coming on as a substitute against Blackburn.

It was the first of 126 goals in 366 appearances for the ‘baby-faced assassin’, a nickname the frontman soon received because his innocent looks belied a deadly ability to put the ball away.

Ole is right up there with my all-time favourite United players. As a teenager in the mid-90s, I loved watching the quietly effective way he went about playing football.

He was an awesome finisher, the best I’ve seen in my years as a Reds fan, with an almost robotic knack of converting even the most tenuous of chances. See that astonishing four-goal haul in 12 minutes against Nottingham Forest for prove of that.

The Norwegian scored all kinds of goals in his 11-year United career – watch our video above to see some of the best. My personal favourite was the left-footed stunner he unleashed in Europe against Lille in 2001.

Ole was an intelligent footballer,