Martin Odegaard is a very modern player who was tipped for immense things at a precocious age but is finally fulfilling that huge promise at Arsenal.
Who’s this then?
Martin Ødegaard is a 24-year-old, 5ft 10ins Arsenal midfielder. Born in Drammen, Norway, he is one of the main stars of the current table-topping Gunners.
A young Martin got his start at local sports club Drammen Strong, where his dad, also a footballer, coached him, even going so far as to put money into the club so it could have a good artificial pitch instead of playing on gravel. The club later got about £25,000 when Martin was bought by Real Madrid.
When he was 11, he joined Strømsgodset and played with kids a couple of years older than him, but held his own well and garnered praise from the coaches for his composure and positioning. He was played as a left-back for most of that time but had a licence to play in more forward positions.
His vision in finding passes and spaces other kids couldn’t was noted as he moved into his teens. Even aged 12 he was standing out when playing against 15 year olds. He made short training visits to Manchester United and Bayern Munich. Clearly, he was a precocious and prodigious talent. So much so that he made his first-team debut for Strømsgodset aged just 15 years and 118 days.
So impressive was his form that there was a clamour to get him straight into the national side despite the fact he wasn’t even 16. As one of the best 15 year olds in Europe he was invited to train with the Liverpool first team and visited the Arsenal training ground too. In 2014 he scored five goals and made seven assists.
With Europe’s elite clubs all sniffing around this wonderkid, Real Madrid came up with about €4million, rising to €8m if certain targets were met and bought him after he’d trained with them.
They promptly put the 16-year-old in the reserve team, coached by Zinedine Zidane. It was a bit of an up and down period. He made his first-team debut at just 16 years and 157 days old but couldn’t secure a regular place. He did quite well in the reserves in 2015-2016 with seven assists and a goal in 34 games but in 2017 he was sent out on loan to Heerenveen.
This was a period when Martin really just got experience of playing regularly in a first team. At Heerenveen he made 43 appearances, scored three times and made five assists. The next season he was on loan at Vitesse Arnhem. The stats show this was where he began to fulfil his young promise. In…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…