A decade later it is difficult to imagine that a player of only 16 is paraded for television cameras and asked to give a 15 -minute press conference for the media of the world, but that was the reality for Martin Odegaard who arrived in Real Madrid in 2015.
Rarely, or never, has a transfer in which a player was involved so young, caused such an amazing media hype. Odegaard was an exciting talent, wanted by every top club in Europe after breaking records with a strom god set in the top layer of Norway and the Norwegian national side of 15 years.
But the gap between expectation and reality, when it came to his first team perspectives at Real Madrid, was brutally uncovered in comments from his own manager, Carlo Ancelotti, in a book that was published barely a year later, when Odegaard was only 17.
“I thought:” I don't care if he is coming or not, because he is not going to play for me now, “Ancelotti wrote in calm leadership.” He could become the best player in the world after I am gone, but I am not interested in the signing because it is not important for my work.
“Of course, when he arrived, I treated him with the same respect that I would give to every young player, but why would I want to be involved in his recruitment? He is being recruited for the future.
“It is still vital to respect the vision of the owners,” Ancelotti added. “Players would arrive and leave who would not necessarily have been my choice, but it was my job to let the team work with which assets I got … You have to manage it. That's why we are called managers.
“As the president [Florentino Perez] Decide that he needs the Norwegian boy for a PR exercise to play three games with the first team, I will work out a way to do that. “
The 'Norwegian boy', as Ancelotti called him, actually only one performance under Italian before his looting in May 2015, as a replacement in a 7-3 victory over Getafe in his last game, when Barcelona was already confirmed as Lalis winners.
But the spotlight was inexorable, even away from the first team.
His versions for the B team of Real Madrid, Castilla, coached by Zinedine Zidane in the third level of Spain, were considerably examined. Some parts of the Madrid press even blamed him for the struggles on the side that season and reported that his introduction had disrupted the dressing room.
Odegaard acknowledged that he found it difficult when he spoke with the Players' grandstand in 2023, at what time he of course had it all behind him as Captain and Talisman of Arsenal. “I stopped playing with the spark that was typical of my game,” he said.
But the biggest problem was the scheme in which he trained with the senior team of Real Madrid, despite the indifference of Ancelotti, while only reporting for Castilla for competitions. “I was not regularly with them, so I didn't find that connection,” he added.
There are memories of how young he was in that article with the players' grandstand. Odegaard remembers that his father, Hans Erik, drove him in training, to play with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and the rest, “as if he is dropping me out at school”. But his age was of few worries for his critics.
“The better you get, the more people you will criticize,” says David Nielsen, the former manager of Odegaard at Stromsgodset, to Sky Sports. “Take a look at the number of people who come forward with strong opinions about Ronaldo, one of the best players in the world, for example. Imagine now that you deal with that as a young player like Martin.
“I have so much respect for the way he treated that. It is incredible. I will never know how he managed it. It would have broken every other player in the world, I think.”
Nielsen wonder about the ability of Odegaard and his character strength. “We couldn't believe our eyes,” he says, remembering his first training sessions with the Senior team of Stromgodset, 15 years old.
“We played him, not because we had to play him or because he was young, it was just because he was so good. I had a hard time hiding my excitement when I spoke with reporters.”
Real Madrid naturally wanted to tap that excitement. After all, the decision of Odegaard to choose them was a big victory, especially because their arch -rivals Barcelona were among his other lovers. But the level of interest only made his subsequent struggles a story.
In the end, Odegaard had to accept a loan movement, for two spells in Heerenveen in Holland for a third with Vitesse Arnhem.
“What you have to remember is that even those loan spells were not so successful in the beginning, and he also struggled in the national team,” Nielsen adds. “So that was another knock.
“He is a Real Madrid player, he goes on loan in the Netherlands, it is not going twice as planned, and it is only the third time, with Vitesse, that he starts to produce.”
On the outside, many had already written Odegaard at the time. He had to prove himself again, first on loan in real sociedad, then in Arsenal, where a temporary enchantment, his fifth way of Madrid, was permanently made in 2021, before he was appointed by Mikel Arteta by Mikel Arteta a year later.
It says that Arteta always refers to the character of Odegaard, as well as his assets, when he is now asked for him. “He is an exceptional representative of the values of this club,” he said on Monday.
The time of Odegaard at Real Madrid was a test in many ways, but it was also making him. He faces his former club on Tuesday and found his way to the top, strengthened his decision by what he has undergone in his younger years.
“Going to Madrid was a good thing for me,” he added to the players' stands. “I learned so much about what it takes to reach the top. I watched, trained and learned from the best players in the world, my idols. I played in the Bernabeu. I learned to be tough and it is part of who I am today.
“It's the reason I am where I am now.”
Nielsen sees it in the same way, even if Odegaard's decision surprised him at that time. “I couldn't believe he didn't go to Barcelona because he is more of a Barcelona player,” he says laughing. “But what I knew was that he had to go to the highest level.
“He was so good that it was the right decision. You have to go to the biggest club with the best players, because there you learn. I know we had a hard time there, but he was only 16. It was only about his body and mind that ripened at this level.
“There were so many times that he could have given it up and lost the way. I am so impressed that he remained so loyal to himself, but I am not surprised. He is so stable and such a good person, with good people around him.”
Ten years later, Odegaard is confronted with his old lace and Ancelotti, for no reason to regret.
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