A decade below, it is difficult to imagine a player with only 16 years old who has been imagined in front of television cameras and is asked to give a 15-minute press conference to the world media, but this was the reality for Martin Odegaard who arrived in Real Madrid in 2015.
Rarely, if sometimes, there is a transfer that includes such a new player caused such a furious media hype. Odegaard was an exciting talent, sought after by any high club in Europe after breaking records with stromsgodsets at the highest level of Norway and the Norwegian national side at the age of 15.
But the bosom between waiting and reality, when it comes to his first team prospects in Real Madrid, stretched brutally naked in comments from his manager, Carlo Ancelotti, in a book barely published a year later, when Odegaard was still only 17 years old.
“I thought,” I don’t care if he comes or not because he won’t play for me now, “Ancelotti wrote in Smooth leadership. “He may continue to be the best player in the world after being gone. But I’m not interested in signing because it’s not important for my work.
“Of course, when he arrived, I treated him with the same respect I would give to a new player, but why would I like to get involved in his recruitment? He is being recruited for the future.
“Still still vital to respect the vision of the owners,” Ancelotti added. “The players would reach and leave that they would not have been necessarily my choice, but it was my job for the team to work with whatever wealth they gave me … You have to manage it. After all, that’s why we are called managers.
“If the president (Florentino Perez) decides that, for a PR Exercise, he needs the Norwegian boy to play three games with the first team, I will work a way to do it.”
‘Norwegian boy’, as Ancelotti called him, actually made only one under Italian appearance before his dismissal in May 2015, as a substitute in a 7-3 win over Getafe in his last match at the top, when Barcelona was already confirmed as the winner of Laliga.
But the attention of the attention was unclear, even far from the first team.
His performances for Real Madrid team B, Castilla, trained by Zinedine Zidane at the third level of Spain, were highly considered. Some sections of Madrid Press even blamed him for the wars of the party that season, reporting that his presentation had broken the dressing room.
Odegaard admitted that it was difficult when talking Player In 2023, to which point he had naturally placed all behind him as Captain and Talisman of Arsenal. “I stopped playing with Spark that was typical of my game,” he said.
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But the biggest issue was the arrangement that included it by training it with the old Real Madrid team, despite Ancelotti’s indifference, while reporting only about Castillas ahead of the matches. “I wasn’t with them regularly, so I didn’t find that connection,” he added.
There are memories of how young was in that article with Player. Odegaard remembers his father, Hans Erik, leading him to training, to play with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and the rest, “as he is leaving me in school.” But his age was a little worrying for his critics.
“The better you get, the more people will criticize you,” says David Nielsen. Heavenly. “Look at the amount of people coming out with strong thoughts about Ronaldo, one of the best players in the world, for example. Now, imagine dealing with him as a young player like Martin.
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 a way to do it
“I have so much respect for the way he handled it. It’S’S’S incredible. I will never know how he reached it. He would have broken every other player in the world, I think.”
Nielsen marvel at Odegaard’s ability as well as his character’s strength. “We couldn’t trust our eyes,” he says as he remembers his first training sessions with the old stromgodseset team at the age of 15.
“We played it, not because we had to play it or because he was young, it was just because he was so good. I had a hard time hiding my excitement every time I talked to the reporters.”
Real Madrid were certainly inclined to get into that excitement. Odegaard’s decision to choose them was, after all, a great victory, especially as their Barcelona arch rivals were among his other plaintiffs. But the level of interest only made his later wars more a story.
Martin Odegaard made only 11 high appearances for Real Madrid
Eventually, Odegaard had to accept a credit action, leaving two spells in Heerenveen in the Netherlands a third with Vitesse Arnhem.
“What you have to remember is that even those borrowing spells were not so successful at first, and he was fighting on the national team as well,” Nielsen adds. “So that was another knock.
“He is a Real Madrid player, he continues to lend to the Netherlands, he does not go as planned twice, and is only the third time, with Vitesse, he starts producing.”
Outwardly, many had already written Odegaard to that point. He had to prove himself again, first with a loan to Real Sociedad, then to Arsenal, where a temporary magic, his fifth away from Madrid, became permanent in 2021, before the captain was appointed by Mikel Artesa a year later.
It is showing that the arts always refers to the character of Odegaard as well as its ability when asked about it now. “He is an extraordinary representative of the values of this club,” he said on Monday.
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Martin Odegaard gave an in -depth interview on Sky Sports earlier this season
Odegaard’s time in Real Madrid was a difficulty, in many respects, but it was also making it. He confronts his former club on Tuesday after finding his way at the top, his determination raised by what passed in his new years.
“Going to Madrid was a good thing for me,” he added Tribune of players. “I have learned a lot about what it takes to get to the top. I saw, trained and learned from the best players in the world, my idols. I played at Bernabeu. I learned to be harsh and face challenges. It is part of who I am now.
“Think the reason I’m where I am today.”
Nielsen sees her the same way, even if, at the time, Odegaard’s decision surprised her. “I couldn’t believe he wasn’t going to Barcelona because he is more of a Barcelona player,” he says with a thorn. “But what I knew was that he had to go to the highest level.
Martin Odegaard is expected to Captain Arsenal against Real Madrid
“He was as good as it was the right decision. You have to go to the biggest club with the best players because you learn here. I know we had a difficult time there, but he was only 16 years old. It was only for his mature body and mind to reach this level.
“There was so many times when he could give up and lose his way. I am so impressed that he remained so true for himself all the way, but he doesn’t surprise me. He is so stable and such a good person, with good people around him.”
Ten years later, Odegaard faces his old side and Ancelotti, for no reason for regret.
