Cristiano Ronaldo's signing "turned out wrong," says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ronaldo currently plays for Saudi side Al-Nassr

It "turned out wrong" for Cristiano Ronaldo to make the move back to Manchester United, according to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

As Solskjaer had been at the helm of Manchester United, Ronaldo made his way back to Old Trafford in the summer of 2021 after a 12-year absence. The club appeared to be acquiring a number of the top goal scorers in the entire globe when he was signed, but ultimately, things didn't work out as expected, according to the Norwegian boss.

As the season went on and the team began to lose games, the environment in the locker room drastically shifted, due to specific players' enormous egos ruining the mood.

Speaking to The Athletic, Solskjaer said, "It was a decision that was very difficult to turn down and I felt we had to take it, but it turned out wrong. It felt so right when he signed and the fans felt that at that Newcastle game when Old Trafford was rocking (after Ronaldo scored twice in a 4-1 win). He was still one of the best goalscorers in the world, he was looking strong.

"When I looked at the fixtures it was going to be a deciding period: Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham, and Leicester away.

Then Chelsea and Arsenal, plus Champions League games. Things went against us. It started with Aston Villa at home (a 1-0 defeat) and a late penalty miss.

When you have a group you need everyone to pull in the same direction. When things didn’t go right, you could see certain players and egos came out. We beat Tottenham convincingly 3-0 away, but then we lost two games."

Over the inaugural campaign back at Manchester United, the Portuguese striker set a new record for goals scored with 24 goals and three assists in 38 appearances.

The following season, things began to go awry as Cristiano Ronaldo was repeatedly benched by new manager Erik ten Hag, and inevitably, the two had a falling out that led to the superstar departing for Saudi Arabia.