The best place to take the temperature of a nation’s love of football is always on the school playground, and in Norway there has been a sea change. Partly it is the colours – sky blue is everywhere these days – but more subtly is the fact that, more so than ever before, there are Norwegian names on the back of kids’ shirts.
The country has always loved English football ever since acquiring TV rights in the 1960s, and the Premier League is something of an obsession. But the fact that two of the leading protagonists in this year’s compelling title race play for the Norway national team has made things personal. Martin Odegaard is Arsenal’s captain; Erling Haaland is Manchester City’s superstar. And on Wednesday night they collide at the heart of a match at the Etihad Stadium which will likely decide who wins the Premier League.
Odegaard’s rise was sudden and then stuttering. He grew up in Drammen, a small city 20 miles west of Oslo, where he caught the attention of watching coaches from as young as 11 years old. His father, Hans Erik Odegaard, was a footballer himself and Martin played for the team his dad coached before signing to the main local club, Stromsgodset, at 13.
He made his professional league debut aged 15 was soon courted by major clubs including Manchester United and indeed Arsenal. He chose Real Madrid, but struggled to make his mark on the biggest club in the world and a series of loans followed.
One of those loans was to Arsenal. “I spoke to Mikel Arteta on a Zoom call and he told me all about the project,” Odegaard wrote in The Players’ Tribune. “At the time, Arsenal were not doing well. They were way down like 15th in the table, but that meeting … Honestly, I challenge anyone to come away from a meeting with Arteta and not believe everything he tells you.
“He told me his plan, everything he was building towards. He knew exactly what needed to change at the club. He told me all about these amazing young players in the squad — Saka, Martinelli, Smith Rowe, etc etc. He told me how he wanted me to fit in and how I was going to improve.
“I got this strong feeling that he was onto something really special.”
That loan turned into a permanent transfer two summers ago and it has certainly been special since, with Odegaard taking on the captaincy and playing virtually every minute as Arsenal’s midfield creator-in-chief this season. And in any other era, he would be Norway’s ultimate star.
This, though, is the era of Haaland. Even Odegaard is in Haaland’s shadow. It is Haaland who fills the back pages of Norwegian newspapers, and even though Odegaard is his national captain and Haaland is his vice, it is the giant striker who truly carries the burden of expectation. After almost a quarter of a century without qualifying for a major competition, Norway expects – even demands – they reach Euro 2024.
Haaland also had a footballer father and he was born in Leeds while Alfie Inge Haaland played for the club. The family moved back to their hometown of Bryne, a small town close to Norway’s west coast, when Erling was three. He was a sporting phenomenon from a young age, setting records in long jump and dominating on the handball court, but it was his goals on the football field that marked him as truly exceptional.
Like Odegaard, Haaland made his league debut aged 15, but from there their journey’s diverged. While Odegaard followed the bright lights to Real Madrid, Haaland took a more understated step to one of Norway’s leading clubs, Molde, where he became their top scorer and won the league’s young player of the year award.
Carefully managed by his father, Haaland took a steady path, spending a prolific year in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg (28 goals in 22 games), and then three outstanding seasons with Borussia Dortmund (86 goals in 89 games), a club renowned for giving young talent the chance to flourish on the European stage. Manchester City came calling, and 48 goals in 42 games – with the chance to win a historic treble – would suggest it has worked out pretty well so far.
Haaland remains almost permanently linked with a move to Real Madrid, the club he dreamt of playing for as a child. Perhaps Odegaard may end back at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu too one day, with a point to prove. They certainly combine well for Norway and have a good relationship, always speaking fondly of one another – Odegaard and Haaland need each other as much as their country needs them.
But for now at least they are enemies in one of the most captivating Premier League title races in years. Norway is as gripped as Manchester and north London. Who wins will decide the colour filling school playgrounds in the months ahead.
