Arsenal playmaker Martin Odegaard has staked his claim to become the next club captain.
The Gunners stripped Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of his captaincy duties back in December following a disciplinary breach and the veteran centre-forward eventually left for La Liga giants Barcelona a month later.
French frontman Alexandre Lacazette has donned the armband since then, with left-back Kieran Tierney handed it in his absence.
Now, Odegaard has spoken about his own leadership skills, whilst also admitting that he has had plenty of ups and downs in his career since joining Real Madrid as a 16-year-old.
“I’ve been through a lot, you know,” he told the PA news agency.
“I went to Real Madrid when I was 16, I played in Norway at 15 and I’ve been to some different clubs on loan and I feel like I’ve been through a lot.
“That helped me to grow up and to feel more confident and to use that in a good way now.
“Of course, it’s a bit more responsibility with being captain for your country but I don’t feel like I’ve changed after that. I think I’m the same person.
“I would do the same things if I wasn’t the captain there and I would always try to help the team, so to me that’s not the most important thing.”
“I was so into football so I didn’t think of everything around me.
“I just wanted to play and have fun and also in Norway when I started playing there was a lot of attention in the media and all those kinds of things.
“But I didn’t really care at that time, now when I look back I can understand it was crazy but at that time I didn’t think about it, I don’t think I was aware of everything around me."
