Martin Ødegaard 

(born 17 December 1998) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as

an attacking midfielder for Premier League club Arsenal and the Norway national team.
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),[4] where he set the club record for its youngest
player. 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 £29 million
(€35 million). After a successful first season with Arsenal, he was announced as the club's captain in
2022.
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.

Contents

 1Early life

 2Club career

o 2.1Strømsgodset

o 2.2Real Madrid

 2.2.12017–2020: Loans in Netherlands and Spain

o 2.3Arsenal

 2.3.12021−22: Permanent transfer

 2.3.22022−23: Club captaincy

 3International career

o 3.1Youth

o 3.2Senior

 4Style of play

 5Media

 6Personal life

 7Career statistics
 o 7.1Club

o 7.2International

 8Honours

 9References

 10External links

Early life[edit]
Martin Ødegaard[5] was born on 17 December 1998,[6] in Drammen.[7]

Club career[edit]
Ødegaard spent his first years in the local sports club Drammen Strong. His father, Hans Erik
Ødegaard, a former footballer,[8] co-founded a football section in the club, and became the coach of
his son's team.[3][9] 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.[9][10]
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.
[11]
 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.[10]
In 2009, Ødegaard joined the youth division of Strømsgodset. He trained and played with older boys.
[10]

The Norwegian FA also organizes young talents in local district teams. 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 2–3 years older.[12] The coach noted: "Handles things brilliantly. Good
choices. Good touch, smart in position game".[12] 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.[12] 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."[12]
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.[13]