Former Manchester United player and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is set to take over at Turkish giants Besiktas, and confirmation should be imminent.
The affable Norwegian manager has not managed a club side since being sacked by United in November 2021. Solskjaer has taken up a role as a match analyst for UEFA and has been spotted watching various Premier League schedule, but is now on the verge of ending his spell in the managerial wilderness.
In the statement of official website of the club this Friday, Besiktas revealed: “Norwegian technical director Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with whom we have started negotiations for the technical director of our football A team, has arrived in Istanbul.
“Solskjaer was welcomed at Istanbul Ataturk Airport by our vice president Hakan Daltaban, vice president Kaan Kasaci and board member Merve Oztopaloglu.”
“I’m very happy to be here,” Solskjaer told the assembled press. “It’s great that so many people are here for this great club. We’ve had our first meetings. I’m looking forward to starting my job. It’s great to be in this great city.”
Former Rangers and Feyenoord boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst was appointed by the team from Istanbul only this summer. However, after a brilliant start to the campaign – Besiktas thrashed Galatasaray 5-0 to win the Turkish Super Cup in August and were second in the table at the end of October – the Dutch coach was sacked at the end of November.
Ole, Ole, Ole. 🦅#KuzeyinKartalı pic.twitter.com/3yPiY2yZbg
— Beşiktaş JK (@Besiktas) January 17, 2025
Former Besiktas striker Serdar Topraktep has resumed his familiar role as caretaker manager, but is yet to pull the club out of a slump in form. They are currently sixth in the first division, although they are only one point behind the European qualification places.
Personnel attrition is not limited to the dugout. Besiktas have already had three different people fill the role of club president this season, with Serdal Adali currently holding the position since the end of December.
Solskjaer’s imminent arrival offers an opportunity to renew the rivalry with Jose Mourinho. The current head of Fenerbahce was United manager Solskjaer was initially replaced in the caretaker role in March 2019, giving rise to a sense of ill-feeling that permeated their subsequent clashes with each other.
Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur have been beaten twice by Solskjaer’s United, however, the Portuguese manager oversaw a 6-1 rout of his former employers at Old Trafford in October 2020.
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