David 'Superstar' May:
"That's the great thing about Ole. He never once let it go to his head and has always remained such a really nice guy.
"If you've scored the winner in the European Cup final it would be easy to become a bit arrogant, so it says a lot about Ole that he never changed.
"He'd go out there, score and was just happy to have done his job. It was the same after that goal against Bayern.
"He's the nicest bloke I ever met in football. He ranks up there with Eric Cantona and the fans certainly think so. Even when he was out, they never stopped singing his name, the same as they do with Eric. That's what he means to them.
"The banner above the Stretford End that says 'Legend' sums up his place up in United's history.
"He was blessed with something money can't buy. He is one of the greats in every way."
Wenger:
"He played with fantastic efficiency. In a quiet way he was one of the most efficient players at Manchester United. If you look at his record, you won't find many better players."
Ferguson:
"Hopefully he'll go on to be a good coach:
"He's been a great servant and has always remained a model professional.
"Ending your playing career is a sad day for anyone. In the case of Ole, he has 11 fantastic years he can look back on.
"He achieved everything a player could ever wish to."
The Telegraph:
In an age when Premier League players survey the world from behind blacked-out windows, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a rare species - he knew he was only ever a footballer.
An illustration of how he was regarded at Old Trafford is that of just five players at the club who knew Roy Keane's telephone number in his final season at Old Trafford, Solskjaer was one. David Beckham never had it.
To anyone else, Sir Alex Ferguson's remark that the Norwegian was "the best substitute in the world" would have been barbed with the intimation he was rarely considered good enough to start. Despite his 126 goals, it bothered Solskjaer not at all. He considered it amusing that he was not even his son's favourite player. Noah Solskjaer preferred Wayne Rooney.
When, in 1998, he was offered the lead role at Tottenham, he turned it down, seeing Manchester United not as the vast, monolithic organisation it is portrayed to be but as a family. He was happy in its bosom.
Perhaps this was because he was so much more grounded than the average footballer, incubated in an academy. Before coming to Old Trafford in the summer of 1996 for £1.5 million, a 10th of the fee that had failed to tempt Alan Shearer, he had carried out national service in the Norwegian army and played third-division football for Clausenengen, where the facilities would make Moss Rose at Macclesfield seem like the San Siro. He knew his roots and, perhaps significantly, he was the only footballer at Manchester United to speak out against the Glazer takeover.
After Solskjaer had come on against Nottingham Forest with 18 minutes remaining and found the net four times in February 1999, Ferguson said: "If I ever feel guilty about the teams I pick, it invariably centres around him. He really deserves better. But the fact is he is better than anyone else at the club as a substitute. He can come on and not be disturbed by it; he finds the flow easily."
After that 8-1 massacre at the City Ground, Solskjaer started the next game; an FA Cup tie against Fulham in which he was substituted.
He announced his retirement four years from the day that "I felt something go" when he took a long ball from Paul Scholes.
The Independent:
The City Ground, Nottingham, Saturday 6 February 1999. There are 15 minutes left to play and Manchester United are 4-1 up in their Premiership match at Nottingham Forest, courtesy of two goals apiece from their first-choice striking partnership, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole. Five minutes have passed since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer came on for Yorke. The game is apparently winding down, and the match reporter from The Independent - this match reporter, to be accurate - scribbles a note to himself to the effect: "76 min: gone flat since Yorke went off."
Flat as a volcano, it turned out. In the 80th minute, Solskjaer scored from Gary Neville's cross for 5-1. In the 87th, he tried to chip Dave Beasant, had it blocked but whacked home anyway. 6-1. Two minutes late he volleyed in Paul Scholes' pass. 7-1. In injury time he converted Nicky Butt's cross for 8-1. And from United's jubilant fans came another round of: "You are my Solskjaer, my Ole Solskjaer, you make me happy, when skies are grey..."
Forest's manager, Ron Atkinson, said: "In a nutshell, we've been murdered." Asked about Solskjaer's impact, he could only give a wry grin. "Good job they didn't put him on earlier."
Plain Alex Ferguson - the Sir would not arrive until after another supersub Solskjaer performance in the Nou Camp a few months later - said: "I put Ole on just to give him a workout. Dwight was complaining that I'd denied him a hat-trick, and Ole goes and gets four. Maybe I'll consider him for next week's game against Fulham now."
If that last sentence was said in jest, it did not hide the fact that Solskjaer, a steal at £1.5m from Molde in the summer of 1996, was rarely a consistent first-choice pick in attack. First Yorke and Cole held sway. Then after a period with Solskjaer starting alongside Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ferguson often opted to play the Dutchman alone up front. Injury curtailed Solskjaer's involvement in the 2003-04 season, he missed the whole of 2004-05, played only three league games in 2005-06, and then had a last hurrah by featuring often as United regained the title last season.
Against that backdrop it is even more remarkable that Solskjaer, 34, who confirmed his retirement yesterday because of knee trouble, managed 366 games for United (approaching half of which as a substitute) and scored 126 goals.
None was more important than the last-gasp winner in the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich. His thoughts about that game, when Teddy Sheringham equalised late for 1-1 before he netted the winner, say much about his desire for more pitch time. "When Teddy scored, I thought, 'Yes!'," recalled the man brought on with 10 minutes remaining of normal time. "I'm going to play 40 minutes of a Champions League Final. That's going to be unbelievable." He did not play 40; merely a blinder.
But it is to his enduring credit that in a normally ego-driven role he stayed the course whatever was asked of him. And in doing so he put himself among the highest-achieving foreign footballers ever to have graced the English game.
In terms of trophies, he has outdone almost every other foreigner including Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry and Gianfranco Zola, to name but three who would gain instant entry into the pantheon of overseas greats. In fact, aside from Liverpool's South Africa-born Zimbabwean goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar (13 major trophies with Liverpool), and United's great Dane Peter Schmeichel (10 with United), no foreign player can beat Solskjaer's nine, all with United: six Premiership titles, two FA Cups and that 1999 Champions League. But for injury, he would probably have added a 10th trophy with the 2006 League Cup.
He became the patron of the anti-Glazer group, Shareholders United, saying: "I think it is important that the club remains in the right hands. I am absolutely on the supporters' side... I am a United fan myself and only want what is best for the future."
As Andy Walsh, one of those now involved with the breakaway FC United said yesterday: "The understanding between supporters and players is sadly missing these days. But Solskjaer's approachable, he's a gentlemen, he is almost without fault. As much as for what he did on the pitch, fans have always loved Solskjaer's genuine connection with them."
BBC:
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer brings the curtain down on 11 years at Old Trafford with one simple statement of fact proving his worth.
No-one - inside or outside Old Trafford - can muster up a single bad word to say about the Norwegian whose boyish appearance won him the nick-name "The Baby-Faced Assassin."
Solskjaer has caused many a curse from opposing teams and supporters with his unerring eye for the target, or his uncanny habit of scoring the goals that win matches, and on occasion trophies.
But once partisanship is removed from the equation, Solskjaer will receive nothing other than praise or respect from every football fan.
The highlight of Solskjaer's career will always be that winner in the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich, capping United's dramatic injury-time comeback.
But earlier that season he kept the treble bid on course with another late, late winner against Liverpool in the FA Cup at Old Trafford.
This was Solskjaer in essence - maybe not a scorer of great goals, but a great goalscorer and a scorer of priceless goals.
He was a better footballer than many gave him credit for, so much more than a penalty area predator.
Indeed, it was his ability to flourish in a right-flank role that helped persuade Ferguson it was time to sell David Beckham to Real Madrid in 2003.
Sadly, persistent injury problems meant Ferguson's theory was never fully put to the test.
Solskjaer the player has been suitably decorated, his career well-chronicled.
But admiration is just as great for Solskjaer the professional.
Solskjaer has never put a foot out of place at Old Trafford, never caused Ferguson a moment's trouble.
He has taken his place on the bench when he may have felt he deserved to be in the starting line-up.
The striker made his point emphatically, but not with words or threats.
He responded by turning games too numerous to mention after emerging as a substitute.
And on one memorable occasion, he scored four times in the last 20 minutes after coming on in an 8-1 win at Nottingham Forest.
And in a time when foreigners infiltrating our game are often portrayed as money-grasping mercenaries, Solskjaer has displayed nothing but unswerving loyalty to Old Trafford.