Ole Gunnar Solskjaer under criticism for shielding a player accused of rape back in Norway. The victim claims he is not fit to lead Manchester United.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is national icon back in Norway. He is admired by several Norwegians. Solskjaer is even more revered in Molde where his performances caught the attention of Manchester United. He went back to the club at the end of his career and managed them to great success in his first spell with them.
His second spell however, was much more tumultuous. However, it was not just the teams performance that came under the scanner but Solskjaer’s decisions related to the club off the pitch that has now come back to haunt him.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer under criticism for shielding a player accused of rape back in Norway
“I don’t think he has the values to manage a huge football club; or people at all,” a victim at the centre of a rape case involving one of Solskjaer’s players at Molde said.
“You have to have good values to raise good players. These are people that are stars. They can do whatever. So, when you have that kind of person to look up to, I think you’re kind of f—ed.”
The woman, is one of 4 others who have accused former Molde midfielder Babacar Sarr of raping them. She claims that she was raped in her sleep after a night of heavy drinking. Despite the ongoing investigations against his player, Solskjaer continued fielding the player saying he saw “no reason” not to pick one of his key players – one with whom he also shared an agent – because Sarr had been neither charged nor convicted.
In fact, when Solskjaer signed Sarr back in 2016, he already had an ongoing rape investigation against him!
In 2018, there was another complaint against him and 3 months later, yet another woman came forward claiming she had given birth to a child conceived when Sarr raped her while she slept in 2014.
The club were hit with Anti-rape banners and chants for the rest of the season. However, Solskjaer was unmoved and even went on to make Sarr the captain of his side on one occasion!
Speaking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s intervention, the woman said:
“When someone says that, if you’re Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or you’re the police or you’re whatever, it’s going to do something with the minds of people.”
Rape accused thanked for contribution during tough time!
Following a trial, the prosecution ruled not to have proven beyond doubt that Sarr had indeed committed the crime. Only one of the three judges disagreed with the other two. However, the three ordered Sarr to pay his accuser compensation of 150,000 Norwegian kroner (around £12,500) after ruling in her favour on the balance of probabilities.
At the end of the season, Sarr allegedly raped another woman, twice, during a night out in Oslo after their final match. The midfielder once again denied the accusation.
Following Solskjaer’s move to Manchester United, Molde parted ways with Sarr; but thanked him for his contribution “through a difficult time for the player as well as the club”.
This, in the victim’s opinion, further compounded Solksjkaer’s previous comments.
Sarr’s self-imposed exile engineered by Solskjaer’s agent
Following the termination of his contract with Molde, Sarr moved to Russia, a country without an extradition treaty with Norway. The appeal was then postponed when his former Molde teammate, who was a key prosecution witness, chose to play a friendly match instead of attending the hearing.
Sarr, then joined a club in Saudi Arabia; yet another country with no extradition treaty with Norway. He failed to show up for the rearranged hearing.
An international has been issued for Sarr. However, despite the termination of his contract last month, he is still there in the country as a fugitive.
Sarr’s moves to both Russia and Saudi Arabia were widely assumed to have been engineered by Jim Solbakken, Solskjaer’s long-time agent.
In the time since, Sarr has also been proven to have fathered the child allegedly conceived by rape back in 2014. Reports from Nettavisen and The Daily Telegraph indicate that he has been charged over the alleged November 2018 rape. However, he cannot be prosecuted unless he returns to Norway.
Responding to her criticisms of Solskjaer, a United spokesman said:
“As manager of Molde at the time, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer fully respected the due process of the Norwegian legal system, which is still ongoing.”
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