Why Real Madrid team-mates resented Martin Odegaard before Arsenal revival

Martin Odegaard will captain Arsenal when they face in the in a clash which holds personal significance for the Norwegian. has established himself as a key player at since joining in August 2021 for £30million – but his status at Real was very different.

The creative midfielder joined Real as a 15-year-old in January 2015 from Stromsgodset after the Spanish giants beat more than 30 other sides to the £2.6m signing. Odegaard was a teenage sensation and hotly tipped to become a future star – and Real president Florentino Perez wasn’t to be denied.

Odegaard was tempted by Real’s illustrious history, but also by a sizable contract and the promise of training with the first team. So while he was to play for Real’s Castilla B-team, he would get to train alongside the likes of , , Luka Modric and Karim Benzema.

His superstar status was perfect for Perez, because it helped further the club’s reputation as the biggest in the . But it caused understandable friction behind the scenes for Odegaard, his team-mates and his coaches.

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Castilla were coached by Real legend Zinedine Zidane, who was forced to pick Odegaard for matches, despite him spending most of his time training with Carlo Ancelotti’s first team. That didn’t go down well with the other B-team players, who were made to feel inferior by Odegaard, despite his personality not matching up to his billing.

reports that Odegaard was ‘resented’ by some of his Castilla team-mates due to his ‘privileged’ status. Those internal concerns didn’t stop Perez from pulling the strings for Odegaard to get a very high-profile debut for the first team.

The young Norwegian was summoned from the bench in the second half of a 7-3 win over Getafe to replace Ronaldo, becoming Los Blancos’ youngest ever debutant at 16 years and 157 days. Ancelotti was in the stands that day, leaving the reins to his assistant Paul Clement, who recognised the difficulties around Odegaard at the time.

“We tried to find a balance but it was not an ideal situation. It was probably a bit for Martin,” Clement told . “Madrid is not an easy club to say ‘no’ to. You’re never sure when it’s going to come around again.

“There are many players a lot of people will not even remember or know the names of because Madrid was too big for them and they didn’t make the grade. But Martin dealt with it very well.

“I’m sure it was quite daunting. You never know what’s going on internally with somebody. He was quiet, humble but good to coach. In training, he could hold his own with his technical quality.”

Ancelotti was pretty blunt in his 2016 autobiography ‘Quiet Leadership’, describing the signing of Odegaard as a “PR exercise” orchestrated by Perez. He wrote: “[Odegaard] could go on to be the best player in the world after I’m gone, but I’m not interested in the signing. He is being recruited for the future, for other managers after my time.”

In the end, that manager wasn’t a Real one, but . Odegaard made just 11 first-team appearances for Real and failed to contribute a goal or an assist. He went out on loan four times before being sold permanently to Arsenal, who now hope he will help them knock Real out of the in the quarter-final stage.

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