Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has shared the pitch with some great players over the years, including Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Norway international is 26 now and the captain of Arsenal. But, he became a global name when he joined Real Madrid at the very young age of 16.
A number of clubs in football, including Arsenal, tried to sign Odegaard at the time, but after visiting all the big sides in Europe, he decided to join the Galacticos.
That chapter of his career was not as successful as he would’ve liked, but Ronaldo noticed things about Odegaard very early after training with him back then.
What Cristiano Ronaldo said about Martin Odegaard after training with him
It must have been crazy for a 16-year-old like Odegaard to be training with Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
The Norwegian was viewed as the best young player in world football at the time, and Los Blancos thought they were going to develop the next superstar.
Of course, things did not work out for Odegaard at the Santiago Bernabeu – not under Carlo Ancelotti when he was there, nor when Zinedine Zidane took over.
That is the reason why he moved on, but Ronaldo was convinced about Odegaard’s talent right after he trained with him many years ago.
The legendary Portuguese superstar spotted three things about Odegaard then:
- He’s a great player
- He has a lot of potential and has a great future
- He has a good left foot
Ronaldo said in 2015, as quoted by talkSPORT: “I will mention Martin Odegaard of Madrid, for example, at 16 he’s still young but you can see he’s a very good player.
“He’s a great player, I think he’s a young boy, he can still grow.
“He has a good future ahead. We must give him time to learn, to take his best decisions. But, I see a lot of potential in the player, he has got a good left foot.”
Carlo Ancelotti has explained why Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard didn’t succeed at Real Madrid
Odegaard spent over six years on Real Madrid’s books, but he played just 11 games for their first team.
The midfielder is still the Spanish club’s youngest player ever to play for the senior side, but his time at the Santiago Bernabeu is not viewed as a success at all.
Ancelotti has explained why.
Speaking in a press conference ahead of the Champions League clash between Real Madrid and Arsenal at the Emirates, Ancelotti said: “I saw him as a really young player.
“The talent he has now is the same talent he had when he was 16 years old. Nothing has changed in this respect. He has had the character and the courage to go elsewhere to seek out new experiences and then become one of the best players in Europe.”
When asked why Odegaard didn’t succeed at Real Madrid, he added: “When he arrived, as I said, he was really young and didn’t have the space to play in the first team because in front he had Ronaldo, Benzema and James Rodriguez, and he did not find the space to show his quality.
“He was really young, he decided to go away to have the possibility to play and I think, honestly, we did well because now he is back in one of the most important clubs in Europe.”
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