Mauricio Pochettino has already revealed that he once celebrated a goal of Manchester United's — Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's famous Champions League winning strike against Bayern Munich in 1999.
United have declined somewhat from that remarkable night in Barcelona that not only saw the club win the Champions League for the second time in their history, but also completed a historic treble triumph for Sir Alex Ferguson's side. These days, however, United are looking unlikely to even qualify for next season's edition of Europe's premier club competition as they currently trail an in-form Arsenal by four points in the race for fourth place.
In a bid to restore them back to past glories, United are on the hunt for their next permanent manager following the sacking of Solskjaer last year. Ralf Rangnick was handed the reins on an interim basis for the rest of the season but the German has struggled to make an impact on performances or results so far.
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Pochettino, along with Ajax's Erik ten Hag, is a leading candidate for the post, with his future at Paris Saint-Germain looking uncertain following a devastating Champions League exit at the hands of Real Madrid. United have been admirers of the Argentine for a number of years, but when the job was last available they opted to hand it to Solskjaer full-time instead of him following a string of impressive results after taking caretaker charge when Jose Mourinho's was dismissed.
Now that Pochettino is back in the frame to finally take the Old Trafford hot-seat, old comments have resurfaced about how he once wound up celebrating United's most famous goal. In 1999, Pochettino was playing for Espanyol so when the Champions League final came to Barcelona he went along to watch what ended up being a breath-taking match and ended up celebrating Solskjaer's winner.
Speaking in January 2019 ahead of facing United as Tottenham boss, Pochettino was asked about his previous memories of facing Solskjaer as a manager when his Southampton side lost to the Norwegian's Cardiff City in 2014. The PSG boss didn't have much of a recollection of that match but remembered fondly the winner against Bayern.
"Not too much memory I no remember so well because it wasn't great" he said on his first encounter with Solskjaer as a manager the pre-match press conference. "I remember the Spanish guy who scored the goal, [Juan] Cala.
"Yes I have good memories because also I remember when he score after 90 minutes at Camp Nou I was there with Toni Jimenez, my goalkeeper coach, we were there in 1999 and I remember him when he scored the second goal in injury time. How I shout the goal of Manchester United that was unbelievable because we were neutral people watching a fantastic game, yes of course I have good memories of him.
"This type of moment you know that look now on Sunday we're going to meet at Wembley, 20 years ago, 1999, I was shouting a goal that he scored for Manchester United and now we're going to play them."
Pochettino didn't have much cause to celebrate after the match, however, as United won 1-0 through a Marcus Rashford goal.
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