Martin Odegaard at Actual Madrid: A ‘PR train’ gone fallacious or the making of the Arsenal captain? | Soccer Information

A decade on, it’s tough to think about a participant of solely 16 being paraded in entrance of tv cameras and requested to present a 15-minute press convention in entrance of the world’s media however that was the fact for Martin Odegaard arriving at Actual Madrid in 2015.

Hardly ever, if ever, has a switch involving a participant so younger brought about such frenzied media hype. Odegaard was an exciting expertise, needed by each high membership in Europe after breaking data with Stromsgodset in Norway’s high tier and the Norwegian nationwide facet aged 15.

However the gulf between expectation and actuality, when it got here to his first-team prospects at Actual Madrid, was brutally laid naked in feedback by his personal supervisor, Carlo Ancelotti, in a e-book printed barely a yr later, when Odegaard was nonetheless solely 17.

“I believed, ‘I do not care if he comes or not, as a result of he is not going to play for me now,'” Ancelotti wrote in Quiet Management. “He may go on to be the most effective participant on the earth after I am gone, however I am not within the signing as a result of it is not of significance to my job.

“In fact, when he arrived, I handled him with the identical respect I might give to any younger participant, however why would I need to be concerned in his recruitment? He’s being recruited for the longer term.

“It’s nonetheless important to respect the imaginative and prescient of the house owners,” Ancelotti added. “Gamers would arrive and depart who wouldn’t essentially have been my selection, but it surely was my job to make the group work with no matter property I used to be given… You have to handle it. In any case, that’s the reason we’re referred to as managers.

“If the president [Florentino Perez] decides that, for a PR train, he wants the Norwegian boy to play three video games with the primary group, I’ll work out a method of doing that.”

The ‘Norwegian boy’, as Ancelotti referred to as him, really solely made one look beneath the Italian earlier than his sacking in Could 2015, instead in a 7-3 win over Getafe in his closing recreation in cost, when Barcelona had already been confirmed as LaLiga winners.

However the highlight was unrelenting, even away from the first-team.

His performances for Actual Madrid’s B group, Castilla, coached by Zinedine Zidane in Spain’s third tier, had been closely scrutinised. Some sections of the Madrid press even blamed him for the facet’s struggles that season, reporting that his introduction had disrupted the dressing room.

Odegaard acknowledged that he discovered it tough when talking to The Gamers’ Tribune in 2023, by which level he had after all put all of it behind him as Arsenal’s captain and talisman. “I finished taking part in with the spark that was typical of my recreation,” he mentioned.

However the greatest situation was the association which concerned him coaching with Actual Madrid’s senior squad, regardless of the indifference of Ancelotti, whereas solely reporting for Castilla forward of matches. “I wasn’t with them repeatedly, so I did not discover that connection,” he added.

There are reminders of simply how younger he was in that article with The Gamers’ Tribune. Odegaard remembers his father, Hans Erik, driving him into coaching, to play with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and the remaining, “like he is dropping me off in school”. However his age was of little concern to his critics.

“The higher you get, the extra individuals will criticise you,” David Nielsen, Odegaard’s former supervisor at Stromsgodset, tells Sky Sports activities. “Have a look at the quantity of people that come out with robust opinions about Ronaldo, top-of-the-line gamers on the earth, for instance. Now, think about coping with that as a younger participant like Martin.

If the president decides that, for a PR train, he wants the Norwegian boy to play three video games with the primary group, I’ll work out a method of doing that

“I’ve a lot respect for the way in which he dealt with that. It is unbelievable. I’ll by no means understand how he managed it. It could have damaged each different participant on the earth, I feel.”

Nielsen marvels at Odegaard’s potential in addition to his energy of character. “We could not imagine our eyes,” he says as he remembers his first coaching periods with Stromgodset’s senior squad, aged 15.

“We performed him, not as a result of we needed to play him or as a result of he was younger, it was simply because he was so good. I had a tough time hiding my pleasure each time I spoke to reporters.”

Actual Madrid had been after all eager to faucet into that pleasure. Odegaard’s resolution to decide on them was, in spite of everything, a significant victory, particularly as their arch-rivals Barcelona had been amongst his different suitors. However the degree of curiosity solely made his subsequent struggles extra of a narrative.

Finally, Odegaard needed to settle for a mortgage transfer, leaving for 2 spells at Heerenveen in Holland earlier than a 3rd with Vitesse Arnhem.

“What you must keep in mind is that even these mortgage spells weren’t that profitable to start with, and he was struggling within the nationwide group too,” provides Nielsen. “In order that was one other knock.

“He is a Actual Madrid participant, he goes on mortgage to Holland, it does not go as deliberate, twice, and it is solely the third time, with Vitesse, that he begins producing.”

On the surface, many had already written Odegaard off by that time. He needed to show himself once more, first on mortgage at Actual Sociedad, then at Arsenal, the place a short lived spell, his fifth away from Madrid, was made everlasting in 2021, earlier than he was named captain by Mikel Arteta a yr later.

It’s telling that Arteta all the time refers to Odegaard’s character, in addition to his potential, when requested about him now. “He’s an distinctive consultant of the values of this membership,” he mentioned on Monday.

Odegaard’s time at Actual Madrid was an ordeal, in lots of respects, but it surely was additionally the making of him. He faces his former membership on Tuesday having discovered his method to the highest, his resolve enhanced by what he went via in his youthful years.

“Going to Madrid was an excellent factor for me,” he added to The Gamers’ Tribune. “I discovered a lot about what it takes to succeed in the highest. I watched, skilled and discovered from the most effective gamers on the earth, my idols. I performed on the Bernabeu. I discovered to be powerful and face challenges. It is a part of who I’m now.

“It is the explanation I’m the place I’m as we speak.”

Nielsen sees it in the identical method, even when, on the time, Odegaard’s resolution shocked him. “I could not imagine he wasn’t going to Barcelona as a result of he is extra of a Barcelona participant,” he says with a chuckle. “However what I knew was that he needed to go to the best degree.

“He was so good that it was the best resolution. You’ll want to go to the largest membership with the most effective gamers as a result of that is the place you study. I do know we had a tough time there, however he was solely 16. It was nearly his physique and thoughts maturing to get to this degree.

“There have been so many occasions when he may have given up and misplaced his method. I am so impressed that he stayed so true to himself during, but it surely does not shock me. He’s so secure and such an excellent individual, with good individuals round him.”

Ten years on, Odegaard faces his outdated facet, and Ancelotti, with no trigger for remorse.