Martin Odegaard is now a player of Arsenal football club as the North London club completed a deal that would see him play for the club until the end of the 2020-2021 season.
The 22-year-old Norwegian attacking midfielder completed his medical at Arsenal on Tuesday, January 26, and sealed the 6-month loan deal with the Premier League club on Wednesday, January 27.
✍️ It's øfficial… 😉 pic.twitter.com/4eV5gNjK3x
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) January 27, 2021
Martin Odegaard is more or less a product of the Real Madrid youth system which he was part of between 2014 and 2017 before he gained promotion to the senior team of the Spanish giants. Unfortunately for the attacking midfielder, it has been difficult to establish himself at the club.
Hence, he has been moving from clubs to clubs on loan and his last club before he returned to Real Madrid on July 20, 2020, was Real Sociedad. It was at Sociedad he had the best of his football career.
While on loan at the Spanish club during the 2019-2020 season, Martin Odegaard played 36 times in all competitions for Sociedad, scoring 7 goals and providing 9 assists.
Due to his performance at Real Sociedad, Real Madrid decided to cut short his two-season loan spell and registered him with Real Madrid’s first-team squad for the 2020-2021 season. Unfortunately for Martin Odegaard, he was not able to get a regular game time at Madrid.
Since the commencement of the 2020-2021 season, Odegaard has managed to make only 9 appearances for Madrid, hence, he decided to push for a loan move out of the club.
Martin Odegaard decided to choose Arsenal ahead of Leicester City and other European clubs that showed interest in his services. In his first interview with Arsenal’s official website, Martin Odegaard said he decided to join Arsenal because he has always liked the way Arsenal play football.
“I spoke to him (Arteta) before coming here, of course,” Odegaard told Arsenal’s website. “That was very important for me and he seems like a top manager and I liked his ideas, the way he sees football and also the way he is.
“He gave me a great feeling and that was important for me to come here. He was crucial.
“I think every time you go to a new place, you want to make sure that it feels good and that there is a plan. But I think everything here just seems good. I like the club and I always liked the way that the club wants to play. Everything about the club and now how the manager wants to play, I think it’s a club that really suits me well. So I think it’s a good match.”
While Arsenal’s coach, Mikel Arteta said: “It’s great that we’ve secured Martin to come to us until the end of the season. Martin is of course a player that we all know very well and although still young, he has been playing at the top level for a while. Martin will provide us with quality offensive options and we’re all excited to be integrating him into our plans between now and May.”
Martin Odegaard has already resumed training with Arsenal’s squad and he might make the Arsenal team that will play against Manchester United on Saturday, January 30.
First session! 💼
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) January 27, 2021
🇪🇸 Dani 🤜🤛 Martin 🇳🇴
🔜📺 pic.twitter.com/IDnNfnvDVe
