Teddy Sheringham has disclosed that he secretly hoped Manchester United would not score in the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich, because manager Sir Alex Ferguson had made him a promise. The striker came off the bench to equalise before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the winner, securing a dramatic treble.
In an interview with Sky Sports' The Football Show, Sheringham explained that Ferguson told him at half-time: 'Look if it stays at 1-0, you’re going to be going on, so get ready after about 10 or 15 minutes.' Sheringham admitted: 'I obviously wanted the score to stay the same at the time. I know that sounds a little bit selfish but you want to be part of what’s going on out there.'
He added: 'At the time I was watching Bayern Munich thinking, “Blimey! They’re very good”. We hadn’t been in the game at all, it was probably our worst performance of the season. They were 1-0 up, they could have gone 2-0 or 3-0 up, hit the bar, hit the post, Peter Schmeichel made some great saves, and we were kind of on the rack really.'
Sheringham also reflected on his disappointment at not starting the final, having lost his place to Dwight Yorke. He said: 'I didn’t have the best of seasons, I’d had a lot of injuries... I started the last game of the season then came off as sub, then started the FA Cup game on the bench and then came on after six minutes for Roy Keane, which I didn’t expect. Scored the opening goal after the first minute of coming on.'
