With Odegaard now shining bright as one of
Arsenal’s main men, I’ve noticed a lot of people seem to have forgotten his past… Despite
being only 24, Odegaard made his debut at the top level 11 years ago… yes… at 13 years of age…
Back then, he was quite simply the most hyped wonderkid in the world, sort of like Hachim
Mastour or Freddy Adu, and though those two ended up… well… one in the Moroccan second division
and the other working as PE teacher… For a while, it seemed Odegaard was headed the same way… even
Arsene Wenger, who tried to sign him when he was just 15, admitted that for a while he was
convinced Odegaard’s career wouldn’t amount to anything… which only makes it more impressive
that he’s become so successful… It’s one thing to be called a wonderkid and then steadily make it
to the top, but making it after being labeled a teenage flop… that’s what makes Odegaard so
special, cause you see… talent was a given, after all his dad, Hans Erik Odegaard was a top
flight footballer so the genetics were on his side… it was something else he got from him that
made the difference…. His discipline… They say, despite school and 3 training sessions each week
at his local club, Odegaard managed to fit in 20 extra hours of individual practice every week…
But as he himself would say “you might think you know this story? Pushy dad making his son practice
every day. But actually, it was the opposite”... His dad made him fall in love with the act of
training and soon, even when neither his dad nor his friends wanted to join him, Odegaard
would still go down to the training center of his childhood team Stromsgodset and ask to be
let into the pitch… He came over there so often, the night guard knew it was him just by the way
he greeted him over the doorbell speaker… At 12 years of age, Odegaard was a mentality monster…
and so, everyone at Stromsgodset decided that, before their golden egg goose was taken from
them, they had to do the unthinkable, they had to give a 13 year old his professional debut…
But after that friendly against Mjondalen, Bayern spotted him, got him on a plane, and had
him training at their academy for 4 days… it really seemed that Stormsgodset was going to lose
him… but for some reason, Odegaard ended up flying back to Norway without even receiving an offer…
keep this in mind, it will be relevant later on…
From that moment, though they tried, Stormsgodset
could not resist calling him up for an official match and about a year later, he became
the youngest ever player to take part in the Norwegian league, at only 15 years of age… At
first he wasn’t even supposed to make more than 3 appearances a season, in fact the league wouldn’t
even allow more than that since he was still on an amateur contract…. But then, he surprised everyone
with an incredible performance on his debut, even getting an assist… And about a month
and a half later, they had already used up the 3 matches he was allowed to play… even
scoring the winning goal in the last of those, leading the manager to claim: “in bad times,
you need a superhero. And it seems a 15 year old is the closest thing we got to one”... as you
might imagine, that same week, they caved in and handed him his first professional contract…
A year before, an interviewer had claimed that “no one knows him in Norway, but he is wanted
by Bayern''... well… now… now everyone knew him… and so the discourse over how he would deal
with the pressure of being a superstar at such a young age started building up… I remember seeing
this news clip, it looked like a school ceremony, and the reporter asked the kids about him,
and one of them said something that struck a chord with me… he called him a role model…
You see… Denmark had Laudrup, Schmeichel and Simonsen, Sweden had Zlatan and
Larsson, Finland had Litmanen, but Norway… they didn’t have much aside from
hope… Odegaard was hope… can you imagine dealing with those kind of expectations at 15?
For some perspective, at the time, most of his interviews consisted of him being asked how he
dealt with his homework… because keep in mind, he was still in school, he had to be and that was
a problem actually, as he was unable to train with Stromsgodset most of the time, instead being
sent to train with Mjondalen, an amateur team where his father was a coach… but still somehow,
in the middle of this mess, he remained focused, when they asked him about it, he even said
“if i get carried away now, i won’t get far in 10 years… I'm supposed to be at my best then,
not now”... It was such a mature thing to say, but it ended up working as extra motivation
to move him even further down the wonderkid supply chain… with the national team calling
him up for the first time, soon after this…
Surprise, surprise… He was their youngest ever
and of course he took the man of the match award on his debut, leaving every norwegian desperate
to watch him again… they were so anxious that after the manager left him on the bench for 3
consecutive matches, the fans began booing the coach at every chance, the media made the most
of it as well, constantly pushing the idea that Odegaard should be a starter and soon the manager
caved in, subbing him on with 26 minutes left in a match vs Bulgaria and watching as the stadium
erupted in cheers… a standing ovation for a 15 year old with 1 international cap… it was absurd…
Just 3 months later, Odegaard was finishing his first season, he had played 23 games, though
they only amounted to about 14 hundred minutes, and still had managed 5 goals and 7 assists…
it was impossible to deny his talent… In fact, Bayern’s chairman was so upset they had let him
leave without a contract the year before, that he set up an investigation across the club to figure
out who was the culprit for this blunder… because at this point, everyone wanted him, he traveled
all across europe, got a tour of every stadium, it was more than he could have even dreamed of…
Even Guardiola was desperate to sign him… once he saw the national team coach in Dubai and instantly
approached him shouting at him “get him to bayern! I will make him the best player in the world”,
to which he told him: “that’d be good but you’ll be out of Bayern soon”... Little did he know that
wasn’t a problem either, as he had already gotten his next club Man City to meet with Odegaard,
using the prospect of Guardiola arriving soon as a negotiation tactic… The clubs were willing
to try anything, they say Man United sent Van Gaal alongside Solskjaer, one of Odegaard’s
idols, to meet with the family in Norway, Barcelona gifted them VIP tickets to their match
vs Ajax and even gave him a tour of La Masia, in fact, it’s been claimed a million times that
he’d probably have ended up there if not for the fact they were hit with a transfer ban in 2016…
Another club, who you might be surprised to know was already trying their hardest to sign him back
then was Arsenal… In fact, Wenger personally took Odegaard out to dinner once… can you imagine
being in that position, Odegaard has admitted that Arsenal were his favorite team growing
up, that just months before that dinner, he was playing FIFA career mode, pretending
to be Wenger and then signing himself… On the day of that dinner, he was so nervous, he
remembers looking at his fries and thinking “is he analyzing me now? Is it bad if I eat the
fries?”.... so he just left them on the plate…
At the time, it seemed the only person to
not have a stab at signing him, was Mourinho, who even claimed “I have heard news that
he is signing for 25 different clubs, I’m not gonna compete with 25 clubs”....
Regardless, in the end, he signed for Real Madrid, some say what made the difference was that Real
promised him he’d train with the main team… Odegaard himself said it was because he would have
the chance to be coached by Zidane in the second team, and he just couldn’t say not to working with
one of his idols… But the more cynical will tell you something else… Odegaard’s family was always
pushing strangely hard for him to join Real, maybe it was the fact the club had promised his
father that if his son signed for them, they would sign him as youth coach… and I know “that doesn’t
sound like a big deal”, but well normally youth coaches don’t get paid 1.2 million dollars
per year... but Odegaard’s father, he did….
Still, let’s move on… with 2.3 million going
the other way, Odegaard arrived in Madrid, he got on the jet, thinking he’d have time to
dress up in the hotel before the presentation, but instead, they drove him directly there… The
result was Odegaard doing his presentation in a striped sweater, looking more nervous than
ever… as he said it himself “I was supposed to be this player Real has beaten everyone
to sign and I look like a random school kid they just pulled from the stadium tour”… which
was a strangely accurate way of putting it…
Regardless, his lack of proper attire did
not stop his signing from causing an impact, that year in Norway, there were
more Real Madrid shirts sold with Odegaard's name on the back than with Ronaldo’s
name… And speaking of the big man, 3 months later, Odegaard finally debuted for the main team and the
world stopped to watch, as Ronaldo was subbed off for a 16 year old… The hopes were high, everyone
stood still waiting for something to happen, but it never really came and 5 years would
go by before Odegaard got to play another league match for Real Madrid… So what went wrong?
Well… Carlo Ancelotti, the coach, at the time of Odegaard’s arrival would eventually call
the transfer a “PR exercise”... saying “when Florentino buys a norwegian, you have to accept
it. Then he decides, the kid has to play 3 matches with the first team… Okay… He could be the best
player in the world, but I don’t care because he was not the player I asked for”... as you can
probably tell, Odegaard was caught in the middle of a war much bigger than himself and that wasn’t
even the biggest problem…. because Odegaard had been promised that he’d train with the first
team, but that meant, he never got to see his actual teammates in the b team, meaning not only
that a disconnected was formed, but also that, according to some, there was a lot of envy… I mean
he was a 16 year old, who only shows up for the matches and makes more money than the rest of his
teammates could even imagine… it wasn’t easy for the other players or for Odegaard… he wasn’t part
of either team, he was stuck in between them…
In reality, it didn’t matter what happened,
he never stood a chance to begin with… I mean, while being coached by Zidane in the Castilla,
he was literally their top assist provider and still once the Frenchman took over the first
team, all he could get for Odeggard was a Copa Del Rey appearance vs a third tier club… I mean
they had Modric, Kross, Casemiro, Khedira, James and Isco… there was no space for some kid to
fit into… but still the media was relentless, insisting it was “make or break time for
Odegaard”, the fans were even harsher online, ridiculing him with all sorts of memes, after all
it had been 679 days since he joined and he was only now making his first start… To everyone's
eyes, Odegaard was a flop, an 18 year old flop…
This could have broken anyone, but instead,
Odegaard took charge and asked the club to be loaned out. For a second he almost ended up
at Rennes, but in the end Heerenveen was his destination… and if there’s something that serves
as proof that Real Madrid didn’t 100% believe in his ability to break into any team, it’s the
the fact they inserted a clause that demanded Heerenveen pay them 40 thousand euros every
time he was kept on the bench… and to be fair, they weren’t too far off, there were a bunch
of times, Heerenveen played him for just a few minutes to avoid paying the fee, and even when
he broke into the team, many didn’t hesitate to describe his time there as average, some
blamed his metatarsal injury, some blamed the quality of his teammates, some blamed the coach
for moving him around too much, but in the end, Odegaard failed to leave much of a mark… and
after a year and a half, trying to compensate for those last two points, Real sent him to Vitesse,
where he was not only joined by better players, but offered a much higher degree of freedom on the
pitch and the result was stunning, 11 goals and 12 assists in 39 matches, even winning the award
for Vitesse’s player of the year by a landslide…
At this point, it seemed Real would finally
go all out trying to fit him into their team, so despite offers from several Premier League
sides and even Ajax, who saw him as a replacement for De Jong, they instead brought him to Real
Sociedad on loan, looking for that bit of La Liga credibility they felt he needed… And
this… was simply a masterclass of a move…
Odegaard fit in tremendously well, right in the
month of September he was already being handed the league’s player of the month award, in fact I
just gotta say this, he was also club’s player of the month and the award for that… was a fish…
But moving on…. 10 matches into the season, somehow, Real Sociedad were 3rd, 1 point from the
top they were playing incredible football, some of the best in europe according to many and in the
middle of it all stood Odegaard, this was his confirmation season, with 7 goals and 8 assists
in his first 24 matches, he had simply won over the hearts of the fans and even if the rest of the
season didn’t go as well as those first months, Sociedad not only secured qualification for the
Europa League, but went on an incredible Copa Del Rey run, that saw Odegaard score or assist against
every team he faced, as they won their first trophy in 33 years… though to be fair, Odegaard
didn’t get to play in the final as it was delayed for a full year in the midst of the pandemic…
Regardless, as the season came to an end, Odegaard wanted to stay, he felt he had found
the perfect place to build the foundation of his career, but once again Zidane came calling,
promising him things would be better this time, and with the memories from their time together in
the B team carrying some weight, Odegaard caved in… and once again things turned for the worst…
Before the season even started he got covid, and was forced to play the first few matches while
still in recovery, failing to cause an impact, then, after just 1 more minute of game
time, he got injured while on international duty and got sidelined for a full month… By
January, he had only gotten 3 more starts….
Suddenly, it seemed he was back to square one, but
that’s when Mikel Arteta called him and told him about his project… and as Odegaard would say “I
challenge anyone to come away from a meeting with Arteta and not believe everything he tells you.”
Only a few days later, he joined Arsenal on loan… quickly impressing the fans who began clamoring
for a permanent deal… By march, he had been made captain of his national team, By August, Arsenal
had forked out 40 million for his signing and 1 year later he was made captain there as well… Now
they’re just a few matches away from their first premier league title since 2004, and if not for
the ironic arrival of another Norwegian, he’d be a top candidate for player of the year…Looking
back on the rollercoaster that was his career, Odegaard has said “Life is not career mode,
You can’t just choose where to go and things aren’t always perfect, but now everytime I
walked into that stadium, I get goosebumps, the kid I used to be would have died for this…
and still, the best is yet to come”...
