Back in 2015, eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo waxed lyrical about the potential of “very good” Martin Odegaard during their time at Real Madrid.
Almost a decade ago, Cristiano Ronaldo backed his former Real Madrid teammate Martin Odegaard to have a successful career in the game – and it’s safe to say he’s been proved correct.
Martin Odegaard, who was 16 at the time, joined Real from Stromsgodset in January 2015 for a fee reported to be in the region of £2.6million.
He initially started in the club’s reserves side, before making his first-team debut on the final day of the season against Getafe, replacing hat-trick hero Ronaldo.
Ronaldo’s verdict comes true for Martin Odegaard after these year
During the early stages of Odegaard’s time at Los Blancos, Ronaldo tipped the Norwegian as one of five players
He thought would have a good future, with Eden Hazard, Memphis Depay, Paul Pogba and Neymar the other four. Ronaldo told BT Sport in 2015: “You see many players with potential. 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.”
When quizzed about what had impressed him about Odegaard, Ronaldo said:
“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.”
Martin Odegaard struggled for game time during the first few years of his Los Blancos career and decided to go out on loan to Heerenveen, Vitesse and Real Sociedad to gain valuable game time.
He returned to Real at the start of the 2020/21 campaign and featured nine times in all competitions, before being sent out on loan to Arsenal.
Question marks were raised over Mikel Arteta’s decision to sign Odegaard in January 2021,
With James Maddison and Jack Grealish among others linked at the time. During his short temporary time at the Emirates, Odegaard scored twice and provided two assists in 20 appearances.
