diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/ssh-quote-user.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/ssh-quote-user.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1ccf5fa939
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/ssh-quote-user.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+- ssh - Properly quote the username to allow usernames containing spaces (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/49968)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/ssh.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/ssh.py
index 724f48c07b..de96c3869a 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/ssh.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/ssh.py
@@ -612,7 +612,7 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
         if user:
             self._add_args(
                 b_command,
-                (b"-o", b"User=" + to_bytes(self._play_context.remote_user, errors='surrogate_or_strict')),
+                (b"-o", b'User="%s"' % to_bytes(self._play_context.remote_user, errors='surrogate_or_strict')),
                 u"ANSIBLE_REMOTE_USER/remote_user/ansible_user/user/-u set"
             )