Martin Odegaard moved to Real Madrid as a young person when Carlo Ancelotti was in charge but saw his career – Before hit new heights when he came to Arsenal
Carlo Ancelotti admits that Martin Odegaard was right to leave Real Madrid despite signing the teenager during his first stint at Los Blancos. The Norwegian was picked up as a teenager with huge things that were expected of him.
A number of clubs in Europe went to Odegaard when he first broke through, but he went to the Spanish capital, where minutes and opportunities were very much on a premium. Ancelotti had built an excellent outfit and won the Champions League months before Odegaard arrived.
As a result, the playmaker had to go on loan minutes and join Real Sociedad, to promote his development and he enjoyed another loan in Arsenal, who led the Gunners to sign him.
Odegaard has since become the selection framework players of the Premier League and delivers the potential that he showed as a young person. Although he was unable to get the most out of him, Ancelotti believes, who enlightened Green his exit in 2022, that the 26-year-old was right to go.
The Italian manager said: 'He was very young [at Real Madrid]. He had that talent when he was 16. He left the club for new experiences and he is now one of the best midfielders in Europe.
“When he arrived, he was very young. He had no room to play in the first team because he had in front [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Karim] Benzema and James Rodriguez, and he may not have found the space to show his quality. He was very young, he decided to leave to have the opportunity to play and I think – to be honest – he did well because he is now back in one of the most important clubs in Europe. “
Odegaard gets the chance to meet his former employers on Tuesday evening when Real goes to the Emirates for the first leg of their quarter -finals. Arsenal has drunk in the years that the Norwegian has been their No. 10, but he has no hard feelings during his time in Madrid.
He said before: “My time in Madrid was good. It was a positive stage, although perhaps some would think differently. I learned a lot, I matured a lot and I could train with some of the best players in the world. But in the end it was the best decision for me.”
Odegaard only made 11 performances for Echt and did not succeed in scoring a single goal. That is not the case with the Gunners, in his best season he has cut 15 times and during his four full seasons with the club he played almost 200 times and was twice named Arsenal's player of the season.
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