Another loan for Martin Odegaard?

In recent days there has been rumor about the possibility that the Norwegian Martin Odegaard of Real Madrid CF will leave the club again on loan after the player himself informed Zinedine Zidane of his intentions to make this move, as a result of the fact that he is not having the playing time that he expects.

Martin Odegaard (Drammen, December 17, 1998) stood out from a very young age, debuting in the first tier of Norwegian football at the age of 15 with a club from his hometown, Stromsgodset IF. From the beginning of his professional career, his case began to attract enormously the attention of the main clubs in Europe, who began to contact the player’s entourage that led him to visit the facilities of clubs such as Arsenal FC, Liverpool FC, FC Bayern Munich, among others and even came to train with one of those clubs.

In January 2015, Real Madrid CF managed to sign Martin Odegaard who at first would join the reserve team of Los Blancos, Real Madrid Castilla CF, which played in Second Division B, the third tier of Spanish football a category whose football level is not that high and is quite physical, which could stop the player’s progression, according to the perception of Real Madrid. This situation led the club loaning him to the Eredivisie, first to SC Heerenveen and then to SBV Vitesse, where the Norwegian stood out as one of the best players in the Dutch championship. In 2019, Real Sociedad SAD obtained the loan for two years for Martin Odegaard. However, the two-year loan was cancelled by both clubs due to the financial situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite the fact that his return was an explicit request from Zinedine Zidane, the reality has been that Martin Odegaard has only played 9 games in half a season, most of them coming from the bench. Here it should be noted that Zidane aligned him in the starting eleven on a couple of occasions at the beginning of the season, in a test period where he used formations such as 4-1-2-1-2 or 4-2-3-1, trying to look for alternatives to the classic 4-3-3 that had been proven successful at the club.

The Norwegian’s performances were not good and this started to move Odegaard away from the starting eleven while Luka Modric and Federico Valverde were increasing their levels. In Zidane’s 4-3-3, the most offensive midfielder is the Croatian although his initial positioning is much more delayed than that of an attacking midfielder and he has defensive responsibilities to help Casemiro with the work of recovering the ball. That physical display, which the Uruguayan also demonstrates, is something that Martin Odegaard lacks, whose position is that of an attacking midfielder located behind the strikers.

With the Norwegian on the field, the team gains visions and a greater combination of passes but loses a lot in balance and recovery, something that has affected Real Madrid this season. As a result of this situation, Martin Odegaard has asked to be loaned again, for the next 6 months and this has alerted several clubs such as Real Sociedad SAD, Arsenal FC, among others.