Debut. A 17-years striker made his
first appearance in a tiny club of a small town in the North.
Someone called Ole Gunnar Solskjær –
no handshakes with Alex Ferguson in 1990, of course, but the main
thing was present: Solskjær looked fragile, too young, hardly
dangerous. His face never changed, rightly giving him the nickname
'the Baby-faced Assassin'. Hard to believe he was even a day older
than... 10? 5? Born 1973 in the town – or village? - Kristiansund,
Norway, he started playing for the local club Clausenengen, in the
youth system, and in 1990 was included in the man's team.
The whole enigma present here – what
Ole shows? That he is 9 years old, or plays with number 9, or just
scored 9 goals?
Sometimes playing for small club in a
small town is a blessing: it is not just Ole who does not look even a
teenager in the youth squad of Clausenengen – it is the whole team
hardly looking more than 10-years old. One look and the whimsical
thought of anybody here playing for the man's team will be dismissed
immediately – in a bigger club.
But comes 1990 and the boy Ole was
playing in the first team and no matter how lowly Clausenengen was,
the baby proved how treacherous was his fragile look: when he left
his home club in 1994, he had scored 115 goals in 109 games. Just
look again at the fingers of the baby again – he was telling
unbelievable truth. Of course, nobody in 1990 imagined such a boy
would interest Alex Ferguson.
