Commuting between multi-million pound mansions in Norway and Manchester, and a seven-month stint in charge of Besiktas: Inside Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s post-Man United life

For Manchester United fans, a lot has happened since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last led the team.

They have seen six managers take charge since his departure, including caretakers Michael Carrick, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and now Darren Fletcher, and the period has been a whirlwind of highs and lows.

For the Norwegian, on the other hand, life since November 2021 has been far more peaceful.

Solskjaer, now 52, was sacked following a humiliating 4-1 defeat by Watford that left United seventh in the table and brought his time at Old Trafford to an end.

Here, Daily Mail Sport looks at the life of the Norwegian hero, forever remembered for his stoppage-time winner in the 1999 Champions League final, and what he has been up to since his turbulent spell in charge of Cristiano Ronaldo and Co.

Immediately after losing his job at his boyhood club, Solskjaer revealed he would return to Norway and watch United from afar.

After being sacked by United, Solskjaer said he wanted to spend more time with his wife, Silje, and their three children, two of whom he is pictured here with in 2019 while still in charge

He set about trying to live a more normal life again, away from the intense spotlight that comes with managing one of the world’s biggest football clubs.

The Covid-19 pandemic had kept his family apart, and Solskjaer spoke of how much he had missed spending time with his wife, Silje, and their three children, who were aged between 10 and 18 at the time and had moved back to Norway during that period.

While in Norway, Solskjaer largely kept out of the public eye, with reports suggesting he turned down offers to manage other clubs, as well as opportunities to work as a television pundit.

Instead, he opted to divide his time between the family’s homes in Kristiansund, on Norway’s Atlantic coast, and Cheshire, where he has maintained ties with the Manchester area.

One such link is a property in 2007 and which he moved into when first taking the job in 2019. The eco-mansion, valued at around £3 million, is located in a private Cheshire area popular with footballers and has been rented out at various points, including to Radamel Falcao and reportedly Virgil van Dijk.

The five-bedroom property sits on 3.4 acres and comes with all the bells and whistles, including an indoor swimming pool, gym, wet rooms, and a separate cinema/media room.

He also spent time re-watching every single United game he was in charge of, all 168 of them, according to reports.

Solskjaer was also spotted spending time with his former coaching staff, many of whom are also his close personal friends. He and Michael Carrick – a key member of the backroom team during his tenure at Old Trafford and now a rival for the current caretaker role – were seen watching Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich Town face Doncaster Rovers in a League One game in 2022.

Solskjaer opted to divide his time between the family’s homes in Kristiansund, on Norway’s Atlantic coast (pictured), and Cheshire, where he has maintained ties with the Manchester area

The ex-Man United boss still has a home in the city he used to live in during his playing days

Solskjaer also spent time with his former coaching staff, many of whom are also his close personal friends, and he and Carrick were seen at one of Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich games

In early 2024, Solskjaer joined UEFA as a technical observer. The position, which he held during Euro 2024 and continues to hold in the Champions League today, involves attending games and ‘analysing proceedings from a coaching perspective’. In some instances, it involves sending a report of the game, in others, it’s simply just picking the Player of the Match.

According to Portugal’s head coach Roberto Martinez, who also is a technical observer: ‘Instead of just watching the game for a specific reason – in my capacity as a national-team coach – you are watching it in a more holistic way and appreciating the development of the game and the competition itself.

‘It could be different types of performance – from young players, for example – or the way the competition is getting tougher physically and cuter tactically with the new trends within the competition.’

The technical observers then provide this information to UEFA, ultimately enhancing the organisation’s understanding of the game at every level which adds up to ‘a detailed account of the evolution of tactics at every level’ – intended to be useful for the modern-day coach as well as historians tracing the history of the game.

Halfway through 2024, Solskjaer admitted that he would say ‘yes’ to the United job ‘every day of the week’ in his first public statement about a desire to return to football since his sacking.

With Erik ten Hag still in charge, Solskjaer confirmed his stance during a Q&A at a business forum in Oslo, saying: ‘If the family (United) asks, I would say yes every day of the week. It feels wrong to talk about jobs that other people have now, but I would say yes, of course.’

In the meantime, Solskjaer also moved into a luxurious lakeside house in his hometown of Kristiansund, which has panoramic views over the city.

And finally, after more than three years out of management, Solskjaer took over as head coach of Turkish Super Lig side Besiktas on a one-and-a-half-year contract in January last year.

He spent the majority of 2025 in charge of Turkish side Besiktas, but was sacked in August after just seven games after the team failed to qualify for any European competition this season

He has been spotted shopping in Cheshire this week, where he moved back to in September

He helped guide the club to a fourth-place finish but was allowed just seven games of the current campaign before being relieved of his duties in August.

That decision followed defeat by Swiss side Lausanne in the Conference League play-offs and came after Besiktas had already been knocked out of the Europa League qualifiers by Shakhtar Donetsk, and meant the club will not have European football this season.

After leaving Turkey, Solskjaer has continued with his role at UEFA – including attending Manchester City’s 2-1 win at Real Madrid in the Champions League last month – and has been living back in Manchester.

Reports also suggested that Solskjaer had been linked with the vacant Rangers job in October following the sacking of Russell Martin, only for Danny Rohl to be appointed head coach.

He appeared on The Overlap podcast as recently as November, saying he was staying in the area for ‘networking’. He added: ‘It’s a good way of keeping in the game.’

If the United job does come calling, then it will have certainly worked.