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Martin Odegaard made his La Liga debut for Real Madrid as a substitute for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2015 - Getty Images/Angel Martinez
In the early days of Martin Odegaard’s time at Real Madrid, when the footballing world followed his every step with uncontained excitement, the Norwegian found some comfort in the sounds of home. After his move to Spain, he began to listen to one of the songs of Stromsgodset, his first club, before each match in the white shirt of Real.
That fact alone is illustrative of some of the emotional challenges that the teenage Odegaard must have faced upon signing for the biggest club on the planet. Clearly, this was a young footballer who craved a slice of familiarity. Few people on the planet can ever understand the life he lived, so far from home and under the brightest of spotlights, at the age of just 16.
A decade has now passed since Odegaard, then the most sought-after teenager in football, had the choice of any club in Europe. Looking back at that time now, it feels remarkable that he was not completely destabilised by it. The speculation, the pressure (he was dubbed the “Norwegian Messi” at 15), the intensity of the whole situation: none of it was normal.
Even some of the language from clubs was strange, if not downright uncomfortable. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Bayern Munich’s chief executive, said of his club’s interest in Odegaard: “He is obviously a beautiful bride, and many grooms are waiting on the door step. Maybe we are the best-looking groom.”
Odegaard was a youngster who made these clubs weak at the knees, and their behaviour was not always what you might expect. On his first day as a Real Madrid player, for example, he was picked up from Norway and taken directly to a press conference for the world’s media. He was not told beforehand. He had not even showered. Odegaard has spoken of his embarrassment at wearing an “old stripey jumper” on “the biggest day of my life”.
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Odegaard, wearing an ‘old stripey jumper’, during his unveiling as a Real Madrid player - Getty Images/Gerard Julien
It was hardly the easiest start to his Real career and, in some ways, it set the tone for what was to follow. Odegaard was never able to fulfil his potential in Madrid, where he made only 11 first-team appearances before his permanent transfer to Arsenal in the summer of 2021.
Now, he meets them again in the Champions League quarter-finals. He does so as Arsenal’s captain and leader, and as a father. The boy who chose Madrid is now a man – these days, he even has the beard to show for it – and no player will be as motivated as him to succeed on Tuesday night.
Why did it not work out for Odegaard in Madrid? One suspects that even he could not say exactly. But in hindsight it does seem clear that the environment, hype and set-up made things exceedingly difficult for him in those early years in Spain.
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Odegaard, pictured alongside Toni Kroos (left), found himself caught between the B team and senior squad at Real Madrid - Getty Images
Odegaard and his father had chosen Real Madrid in large part because they had a B team who played in a competitive league. This meant he could start playing matches immediately, rather than waiting until he was ready for first-team action. The plan was for Odegaard to train with the stars of the senior squad, and then play matches for the B team.
A nice idea, in theory. The end result, though, was that Odegaard found himself caught between two worlds. He was not a proper first-team player, and his lack of training time with the B team meant he was not really a proper B team player, either. Rather than being able to establish himself, he drifted between the two.
With so much interest in Odegaard’s development, the Spanish press were relentlessly – and perhaps brutally – attentive. In 2016, when he was still only 17, Marca wrote: “The Norwegian hasn’t warmed to the league, nor has the team warmed to him.”
Odegaard’s situation was not helped by the reluctance of Carlo Ancelotti, the Real Madrid manager, to assist in his development. Ancelotti – who will be in the dugout at the Emirates Stadium tonight, following his reappointment in 2021 – revealed as much in his 2016 book.
“When Real Madrid decided to sign a kid from Norway, 16-year-old Martin Odegaard, I thought ‘I don’t care if he comes in or not because he’s not going to play for me now,’” the Italian wrote. “He could go on to be the best player in the world after I’m gone, but I’m not interested in the signing because it isn’t of importance to my job.
“Of course, when he arrived I treated him with the same respect I would give to any young player, but why would I want to be involved in his recruitment? He is being recruited for the future, for other managers after my time.
“If the president decides that, for a PR exercise, he needs the Norwegian boy to play three games with the first team, I will work out a way of doing that.”
The description of Odegaard as a “PR exercise” created a stream of headlines and did little to help the player’s standing in Spain. By 2017, he had even become a cruel byword for supposed teenage flops. Mundo Deportivo wrote that Real were hoping that Vinicius Junior, who was 16 when he agreed to join, “does not end up becoming another Odegaard”.
It is perhaps no surprise, then, that Odegaard’s most purposeful steps forward were subsequently taken on his loan spells away from Madrid. In moves to Heerenveen, Vitesse Arnhem, Real Sociedad and then Arsenal, he improved season after season, becoming stronger and smarter. By the time he left Madrid on a permanent basis, joining Arsenal for £30 million, he was on the brink of becoming one of Europe’s finest playmakers.
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The Arsenal captain has gone on to fulfil so much of his potential and serves as Mikel Arteta’s eyes and ears on the pitch - Arsenal FC via Getty Images/Stuart MacFarlane
Odegaard could have joined Arsenal as a teenager. As they were deciding on his future, he and his father were taken out for dinner by Arsène Wenger. Sources close to the Arsenal captain insist, though, that he has no regrets over the decision they made to move to Madrid.
In Spain he learnt a patience and resilience that might not have been required elsewhere, and those attributes have proved crucial to his development since. And his proximity to so many elite-level players – Odegaard made his La Liga debut as a substitute for Cristiano Ronaldo, for example – taught him about the technical and mental level required on the biggest stage.
Odegaard has reached that stage now, with Arsenal rather than Real Madrid, and as an individual he has fulfilled so much of his potential. This season has been more challenging with fitness issues but, over the past couple of years, there have been few playmakers as effective as Arsenal’s captain, who serves as Mikel Arteta’s eyes and ears on the pitch.
Against Real Madrid, the club who have defined so much of his professional life, Odegaard will look to demonstrate how he has grown. To prove to Ancelotti that he was so much more than a tool in a wider public relations game. To show that he has become what so many expected of him when he was just a wide-eyed boy, wearing a stripey jumper and listening to songs from home.
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