sport news Manchester United: How Ole Gunnar Solskjaer signed 25 years ago this week

A summer's day in Manchester and Alex Ferguson squints into the sunshine and the camera lens as he poses with United's quintet of new signings.

His No 1 transfer target, Alan Shearer, had gone home to Newcastle for a world-record £15million, but Ferguson is still quietly satisfied with his bargains after a European shopping spree.

There's the long-haired Czech winger Karel Poborsky, who had scored that outrageous lob against Portugal in the quarter-final of Euro 96 a month earlier, signed for £3.5m.

There's Jordi Cruyff, son of Dutch legend Johan, picked up from Barcelona for just £1.4m, plus the Norwegian defender Ronny Johnsen, £1.2m from Besiktas, and the Dutch keeper Raimond van der Gouw, who will be back-up to Peter Schmeichel.

Then, in the middle of the picture, with Ferguson's arm draped around his shoulders, is a baby-faced boy in an over-sized shirt who looks about 13.

As Gary Neville would quip many years later, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave the first impression of someone who'd somehow won a competition in Norway to come and train with United.

The £1.5m striker from Molde was one of the lower key summer arrivals. It was intended he would start off in the reserves and work towards the first team - but history had other ideas.

It's 25 years this week since Solskjaer signed and the golden thread that binds him and Manchester United together shows no sign of fraying.

This club legend turned manager has just extended his contract through until 2024, taking the story into another quarter-century.

Despite his youthful looks, it would be wrong to say Solskjaer, 23 years old when he joined United, was a novice. He'd played over 150 games in Norwegian football, was a full international and had been attracting interest from leading European clubs.

Indeed, things could have been very different. His manager at Molde, Aage Hareide, had already tipped off Everton and Manchester City to Solskjaer's potential, while there was also interest from Liverpool and other heavyweights.

'Were Liverpool and Bayern Munich in for me? Yes,' Solskjaer recalled many years later. 'Cagliari, PSV Eindhoven and a couple of other teams.

'But I wouldn't change the history. There was only one choice. It was fantastic when the call came.'

Less so for Hareide, the former Manchester City defender, who thought the fax from Fergie that landed on his desk during Euro 96 was a hoax. It almost ended up in the bin.

'I thought someone was being mischievous and the fax was not all that it seemed,' he said in 1996. 'But when I inspected it closely it seemed genuine.

'We still contacted United to double check and then accepted their offer. When the public found out the place went mad because it's a record fee in Norway.' 

United had discovered Solskjaer purely by accident. Scout Jim Ryan was at a Norway World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan in June 1996 watching Johnsen when Solskjaer scored two goals.

" class="c6" scrolling="no"

Sat next to Ryan was Wolves manager Mark McGhee, who was actually watching Solskjaer. Ryan phoned Ferguson right away: 'I've found someone but we need to be quick.' The fax machine was soon whirring.

Called into Hareide's office to discuss the move to United, Solskjaer required little convincing. Time was of the essence, with both the Molde bosses and United chairman Martin Edwards about to go off on holiday.

With the private jet Molde typically made use of undergoing repairs, they sourced another plane to get Solskjaer over to Manchester at the earliest opportunity.

Upon his arrival, Solskjaer was whisked into a one-on-one meeting with Ferguson.

'I was nervous because you're afraid that you're going to say something daft and he's going to have a wrong first impression,' Solskjaer recalled on the UTD Podcast.