Martin Ødegaard is one of the top prospects in world football. Despite only being 16 years old, he has 7 caps for Norway’s first team.
Last season he was in talks with nearly every single big club in the world. Ødegaard turned down Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea, Juventus and Bayern Munich to join Real Madrid.
Madrid paid his parent club, Strømsgodset, £1.96 million upfront, which could grow depending on his future career. But he’s been limited to Real’s Castilla team, who play in Segunda División B, since signing.
The youngster is now kicking up a fuss, complaining about his limited first team opportunities. So far he has one brief appearance for the Los Blancos first team but featured for them in pre-season.
Celtic were reported to have come knocking to try and work out a loan deal for the Norwegian, but Madrid rejected the offer.
Ødegaard wants to be playing regular first team football so is considering a move away from Real Madrid.
This has re-alerted all of those big teams that he had previously snubbed.
But, being only 16 years old, it’s quite unlikely that he’d actually play first team football at any big club yet. He’s very talented but lacks the extra ability that’s naturally gained by playing youth football.
Manchester Untied are in the running to sign Ødegaard but he had very little chance of playing regular first team football at Old Trafford. The prodigy plays central or attacking midfield, which is arguably Manchester United’s strongest outfield position.
Martin Ødegaard has the potential to be an incredible player but if he wants first team football he won’t find it at a big club yet.
