Odegaard at Real Madrid: A 'PR exercise' gone wrong or the making or him?

A decade on, it is difficult to imagine a player of only 16 being paraded in front of television cameras and asked to give a 15-minute press conference in front of the world's media but that was the reality for Martin Odegaard arriving at Real Madrid in 2015.

Rarely, if ever, has a transfer involving a player so young caused such frenzied media hype. Odegaard was a thrilling talent, wanted by every top club in Europe after breaking records with Stromsgodset in Norway's top tier and the Norwegian national side aged 15.

But the gulf between expectation and reality, when it came to his first-team prospects at Real Madrid, was brutally laid bare in comments by his own manager, Carlo Ancelotti, in a book published barely a year later, when Odegaard was still only 17.

"I thought, 'I don't care if he comes or not, because he's not going to play for me now,'" Ancelotti wrote in Quiet Leadership. "He could go on to be the best player in the world after I'm gone, but I'm not interested in the signing because it isn't of importance to my job.

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"Of course, when he arrived, I treated him with the same respect I would give to any 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 depart who would not necessarily have been my choice, but it was my job to make the team work with whatever assets I was given… You must manage it. After all, that is why we are called managers.

"If the president [Florentino Perez] decides that, for a PR exercise, he needs the Norwegian boy to play three games with the first team, I will work out a way of doing that."

The 'Norwegian boy', as Ancelotti called him, actually only made one appearance under the Italian before his sacking in May 2015, as a substitute in a 7-3 win over Getafe in his final game in charge, when Barcelona had already been confirmed as LaLiga winners.

But the spotlight was unrelenting, even away from the first-team.

His performances for Real Madrid's B team, Castilla, coached by Zinedine Zidane in Spain's third tier, were heavily scrutinised. Some sections of the Madrid press even blamed him for the side's struggles that season, reporting that his introduction had disrupted the dressing room.

Odegaard acknowledged that he found it difficult when speaking to The Players' Tribune in 2023, by which point he had of course put it all behind him as Arsenal's captain and talisman. "I stopped playing with the spark that was typical of my game," he said.

But the biggest issue was the arrangement which involved him training with Real Madrid's senior squad, despite the indifference of Ancelotti, while only reporting for Castilla ahead of matches. "I wasn't with them regularly, so I didn't find that connection," he added.

There are reminders of just how young he was in that article with The Players' Tribune. Odegaard recalls his father, Hans Erik, driving him into training, to play with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and the rest, "like he's dropping me off at school". But his age was of little concern to his critics.

"The better you get, the more people will criticise you," David Nielsen, Odegaard's former manager at Stromsgodset, tells Sky Sports. "Look at the amount of people who come out with strong opinions about Ronaldo, one of the best players in the world, for example. Now, imagine dealing with that as a young player like Martin.

"I have so much respect for the way he handled that. It's unbelievable. I will never know how he managed it. It would have broken every other player in the world, I think."

Nielsen marvels at Odegaard's ability as well as his strength of character. "We couldn't believe our eyes," he says as he recalls his first training sessions with Stromgodset's senior squad, aged 15.

"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 whenever I spoke to reporters."

Real Madrid were of course keen to tap into that excitement. Odegaard's decision to choose them was, after all, a major victory, especially as their arch-rivals Barcelona were among his other suitors. But the level of interest only made his subsequent struggles more of a story.

Eventually, Odegaard had to accept a loan move, leaving for two spells at Heerenveen in Holland before a third with Vitesse Arnhem.

"What you have to remember is that even those loan spells were not that successful in the beginning, and he was struggling in the national team too," adds Nielsen. "So that was another knock.

"He's a Real Madrid player, he goes on loan to Holland, it doesn't go as planned, twice, and it's only the third time, with Vitesse, that he starts producing."

On the outside, many had already written Odegaard off by that point. He had to prove himself again, first on loan at Real Sociedad, then at Arsenal, where a temporary spell, his fifth away from Madrid, was made permanent in 2021, before he was named captain by Mikel Arteta a year later.

It is telling that Arteta always refers to Odegaard's character, as well as his ability, when asked about him now. "He is an exceptional representative of the values of this club," he said on Monday.

Odegaard's time at Real Madrid was an ordeal, in many respects, but it was also the making of him. He faces his former club on Tuesday having found his way to the top, his resolve enhanced by what he went through in his younger years.

"Going to Madrid was a good thing for me," he added to The Players' Tribune. "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 at the Bernabeu. I learned to be tough and face challenges. It's part of who I am now.

"It's the reason I am where I am today."

Nielsen sees it in the same way, even if, at the time, Odegaard's decision surprised him. "I couldn't believe he wasn't going to Barcelona because he's more of a Barcelona player," he says with a chuckle. "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 need to go to the biggest club with the best players because that's where you learn. I know we had a hard time there, but he was only 16. It was just about his body and mind maturing to get to this level.

"There were so many times when he could have given up and lost his way. I'm so impressed that he stayed so true to himself all the way through, but it doesn't surprise me. He is so stable and such a good person, with good people around him."

Ten years on, Odegaard faces his old side, and Ancelotti, with no cause for regret.