Martin Ødegaard

Martin Ødegaard (born 17 December 1998) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for and captains both Premier League club Arsenal and the Norway national team.

Considered one of the best midfielders in the world, he is known for his technique, dribbling ability, vision and range of passing.

Martin Ødegaard was born on 17 December 1998, in Drammen.

He spent his first years in the local sports club Drammen Strong.

His father, Hans Erik Ødegaard, a former footballer, co-founded a football section in the club, and became the coach of his son's team.

In 2005, when Ødegaard was six, his parents and others each invested 50,000 kroner so that the local club could refit their gravel field, Kjappen, with artificial turf.

This has been cited as crucial for his development, as Ødegaard spent countless hours on the field.

In 2009, Ødegaard joined the youth division of Strømsgodset.

He trained and played with older boys.

The Norwegian Football Federation also organises young talents in local district teams, and Ødegaard played his first matches for the Buskerud team in January 2010, when he had just turned 11.

The other players on the team, and opponents, were two to three years older.

The coach noted: "Handles things brilliantly. Good choices. Good touch, smart in position game".

Ødegaard trained with this team weekly for the next three years.

He mostly played left back, as the coaches felt this would give him a positive experience with many ball touches while still playing against physically much stronger players.

In attack, he was given free rein due to his ability to "see solutions and spaces that we as coaches were not even close to thinking about."

In 2011, at age 12, he impressed former football manager Lars Tjærnås during a nationwide tournament for under-16s: The best 15-year-olds in the country were gathered for a tournament between the top clubs... It was definitely not the first time he had astonished his opponents or the spectators.

He was three or four years younger than the others.

It was impossible not to realize that we were witnessing something out of the ordinary.

Ødegaard began training with the Strømsgodset first team in 2012, aged 13.

He made his first-team debut the same year, in a mid-season friendly against local rivals Mjøndalen IF.

He also had short training visits to Bayern Munich and Manchester United.

In 2013, at age 14, Ødegaard played for both Strømsgodset's junior team (normally aged 17–19), and the club's third team at the fifth tier of Norwegian senior football.

Ødegaard began his senior club career at age 15 in 2014, playing for Strømsgodset; he set the Tippeligaen record for its youngest goalscorer, and in 2015, signed for Real Madrid in a transfer worth an initial €4 million (Kr. 35 million), where he set the club record for its youngest player.

Ødegaard made his senior international debut for Norway in 2014, at age 15, and has set the record for the youngest senior Norway player, and the youngest player to play in a UEFA European Championship qualifying match.

He assumed the full captaincy of Norway in March 2021.

Drammen Strong was twice selected by Ødegaard to receive a prize of 50,000 kroner (€5,800), when the young player was given the Statoil talent award for April 2014 and for the 2014 season.

In January 2014, it was agreed that 15-year-old Ødegaard would be part of Strømsgodset's first team for the year, but no professional contract was signed.

The competition rules state that to play in Tippeligaen, players must have a professional contract to be eligible.

However, the club included Ødegaard on the "B-list" for amateur players, which made him eligible for up to three matches per season.

Ødegaard was unable to train with Strømsgodset in the daytime since he was still in compulsory education.

Thus, as part of the agreement, he trained two evenings a week with Mjøndalen IF, a semi-professional First Division team at the time, where his father was one of the coaches.

He made his league debut for Strømsgodset in a match against Aalesunds FK at Marienlyst Stadion on 13 April 2014.

Aged 15 years and 118 days, he became the youngest footballer ever to play in Tippeligaen.

Later, in 2015, Drammen Strong received 250,000 kroner, equivalent to approximately €29,000, as a gift from Strømsgodset Toppfotball when Ødegaard was sold to Real Madrid.

On 5 May, he signed a professional contract with Strømsgodset, lasting until the end of 2015.

This removed the restriction of three matches per season.

Eleven days later, he scored his first professional goal and became the youngest goalscorer in Tippeligaen when he scored the fourth goal for Strømsgodset in a 4–1 home victory against Sarpsborg 08 FF.

After enduring sporadic playing time, Ødegaard joined Eredivisie clubs Heerenveen and Vitesse, and La Liga club Real Sociedad, on successive loans between 2017 and 2019; Ødegaard won the Copa del Rey with Real Sociedad in 2019.

Following another loan, he signed for Arsenal in 2021 in a transfer worth an initial £30 million (€35 million).

After a successful first full season with Arsenal, he was announced as the club's captain in 2022.