Martin Odegaard's love affair with Arsenal goes back a long way before he first signed for the club in 2021. In fact it even goes back further than his infamous meeting with Arsene Wenger at the age of 16.
"I've always had this weird connection to Arsenal. It started long before I signed," he tells The Players' Tribune. "I don't even really know how to explain it, except with one little story. I've never been that much into video games. I am of that generation that always played outside, but the one exception was FIFA . I mostly played Career Mode. You know, where you get to be the manager? The club I always chose to manage was Arsenal. They were my FIFA team.
"Growing up in Norway, I watched a lot of Premier League and I just had this good feeling about Arsenal. I’d seen clips of Thierry Henry and the Invincibles. I knew the club had a history of developing playmakers like Fabregas, Nasri, Ozil - really smart, technical players, who were good on the ball and played the difficult passes. My kind of players.
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"As I got older, around the 2015 edition, I started actually appearing in FIFA . I didn’t look much like me at first. I think I was like a 67 overall, but I was actually in the game and it was a big deal. So, naturally, one of the first things I did when I was pretending to be Arsene Wenger on Career Mode was to buy myself. Haha! Me and Arsenal. It just seemed like a good match in my head."
Odegaard's FIFA dream has since transformed into reality after he signed for the Gunners first on loan in January 2021, and then on a permanent basis that summer. The Norwegian has gone on to become club captain and arguably one of the best players in the Premier League this season and he admits that it was a conversation with manager Mikel Arteta that put him on this trajectory.
"I spoke to Mikel Arteta on a Zoom call and he told me all about the project," Odegaard says. "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 is next level. It's hard to explain. He’s passionate, he’s intense and sometimes, yeah, he’s a bit crazy … but when he speaks, you understand that whatever he says will happen, will happen.
"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... 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.
"Not that I needed any more convincing but I also got so many messages from Arsenal fans on Instagram telling me to sign. Not just me, my whole family, friends and everyone I follow! It’s such an amazing, active fan base. Random people I know would show me how the comments on their posts were full of stuff like 'tell Martin to sign for Arsenal'. That was just … Wow.
"I have to say, the fans have been amazing since I’ve been here. Maybe some people think that doesn't matter to us as players, but it matters. At the Emirates, every time you make a tackle to knock the ball out for a throw-in, the whole stadium cheers like you've scored a goal. They give you this confidence that you can do anything.
"At the end of my first season here in 2020/21, when we finished eighth, it seemed like no one at the club lost faith in what we were doing. Everyone believed in us. It was all part of the plan. Even last season when things got really tough. Obviously, we took it hard losing out on Champions League qualification when it was in our hands like that, but we learned from that experience. We came back closer, stronger, hungrier."
This season Odegaard has the chance to lead Arsenal to their first Premier League title since 2004. The Gunners currently sit five points clear at the top of the Premier League table ahead of a crucial week of fixtures in which they face Brentford and Manchester City. Many say that Odegaard is a reflection of his manager's character in the dressing room, and just like Arteta, the Norwegian insists his teammates aren't getting carried away just yet.
"We’re in the title race now, but there’s a long way to go and, trust me, no one is thinking about May yet," he says. "It’s a cliche but we are taking it game by game, training session by training session. One piece at a time.
"I will say this, though, if there’s anyone left who still doesn’t fully believe in this team, take it from me: there are no limits on what we can achieve. No one can tell me otherwise."
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