With a whopping 28 Premier League goals already for Man City in his debut season in the English top-flight, Erling Haaland has inevitably been the star player in the division this year.
But while the Norwegian has certainly made the most headlines, you could argue one of his compatriots has, quietly in comparison, been equally impressive as the Premier League title-race heats up.
Despite Haaland’s goals, reigning champions Man City are second in the table. They still have to make up a deficit on Arsenal in the final weeks of the season if they are to defend their title.
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Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have arguably been the standout players for Mikel Arteta’s men this season, yet Gunners captain Martin Odegaard has been just as crucial to the North Londoners’ sudden emergence as genuine title contenders.
The Norwegian playmaker boasts 10 goals and eight assists from 28 Premier League appearances this season, and could well be holding aloft the highly-coveted trophy next month if Arsenal avoid any slip-ups in the final weeks of the campaign.
“If we drop points, Arsenal will be champions in advance,” Man City boss Pep Guardiola warned his players at his latest pre-match press conference on Friday. “If we win, win, win, maybe we will be champions at the end, on the last day of the season. So this is what is going to happen.”
Arsenal’s next test is a trip to Liverpool today as the Gunners look to win at Anfield for the first time since 2012, while, in contrast, the Reds will be looking to resurrect their own dwindling top four hopes.
And with Odegaard in such fine form, the midfielder will be looking down a side he could easily have joined earlier in his career.
It’s easy to forget the Norwegian is still only 24. He was only 15 when he made his senior international debut in 2014, after all. Bursting onto the scene in his homeland, he’d famously agree to join Real Madrid from Stromsgodset in a deal worth an initial £2.3m in January 2015.
Yet the La Liga giants were the only side chasing the then-teenager’s signature. A boyhood Liverpool fan, the Reds were one of numerous sides the playmaker took in as a 15-year-old, even training with Brendan Rodgers’ first team squad, when weighing up his options when deciding to leave Stromsgodset.
A year earlier, he had even referred to Liverpool as his ‘dream club’.
"Liverpool have always been my dream club, but I will not let this affect my decision when I choose a new club,” he said speaking to Sport Bild back in 2014.
"It's all about finding the team that is best for me and for my development. That is not necessarily Liverpool. I haven't really thought about my future yet.
"I will end the season here and then visit a number of clubs. I have not made a final decision yet, though. Of course, it's flattering when you hear that big clubs are after you, but I don't think about it too often."
Yet come 2015, the playmaker made his choice. Despite his boyhood Liverpool allegiances, Real Madrid was the club for him.
"I visited Liverpool, the two Manchester teams and they were all very nice but my choice was Real Madrid and I am very happy with that,” he admitted at the time. "Madrid is very good. It is the best place if you want to become a better footballer. I have been given the No 10 shirt (at Castilla) and it is a big responsibility having that number but it is the one that I like and I am just going to enjoy it."
Odegaard would train with both the Real Madrid first team and Castilla, who were managed by the legendary Zinedine Zidane at the time, with such factors contributing significantly to his decision.
"My dad handled everything with the clubs, and there were a lot," Odegaard said to The Players Tribune earlier this year, explaining the situation as a teenager. "We went to Bayern, Dortmund, Man Utd, Liverpool, Madrid, Arsenal too. We got flown around in private planes and made to feel special.
"So, why Real Madrid then? I talked about it a lot with my dad and the rest of my family. In the end, Madrid is Madrid," he added. "They were the Champions League holders with the best players in the world. Back then, I loved Isco — he was so smooth on the ball.
"Another one of my kind of players! But the really key thing about Madrid’s offer was that they had a B team where I could play competitive football immediately. And the manager of that team? Zinedine Zidane. It felt like the total package."
Yet in the face of such hype and expectations, the then teenager ultimately struggled to make the desired impact at the Bernabeu.
He would make just 11 appearances for the Real Madrid first team between 2015 and 2021, and would only be gifted a brief senior chance by Los Blancos in the 2020/21 season after successful loan stints with Heerenveen, Vitesse Arnhem, and Real Sociedad.
Yet, even with Zidane now manager of the Real Madrid first team, he would make just nine appearances in 2020 before being sent on loan to Arsenal. The switch to North London would be the making of him.
Impressing enough during his temporary stint at the Emirates, he registered two goals and two assists from 20 appearances before joining the Gunners permanently in a £30m switch in August 2021. He hasn’t looked back since.
Boasting seven goals and five assists last year, he was named Arsenal captain at the start of the campaign by Mikel Arteta and is currently enjoying the season of his career to date.
Given such form, you wonder if Liverpool regret not snapping up the player when they had the chance. According to Odegaard’s manager at Vitesse, Leonid Slutsky, the Reds even renewed their interest in the Norwegian in 2019 prior to his temporary move to Sociedad. As a result, you imagine he remained on their radar from afar prior to his switch to North London.
Of course, it’s not only Liverpool who have their regrets regarding Odegaard. Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has tried to sign him for Borussia Dortmund previously, only to be left disappointed by his decision to join Real Madrid.
"I really like him. It's easy these days,” the German told TV2 via Sport Witness last year. “It was a bit more difficult at the start of his career when he was at Real Madrid. Then it looked like it might not go his way. I was really disappointed by that because we wanted him in Dortmund when he was very young.
"We had a long conversation when he was still a boy, together with his father. In the end, he decided on Madrid, and that's fine, but that's why I've always followed him.
"It is very, very impressive. You can only imagine how many talents, huge talents, crazy talents, I have seen over the course of quite a while in this industry. At the time, Martin was 15 years old and already playing in Norway. The whole world went berserk.
"Until he was 15, he probably experienced no hardship. After that, a lot of things went against him. It makes him the person he is now, the man he is now, and the player he is now.
"I'm really happy that he has now become the player we all expected him to become. In fact, even better than that, if you will. He plays a massive role in an incredibly strong Arsenal team.
"He's still young, clear in his head, very influential. I honestly can't say anything negative about him. Really a top player."
When you consider Liverpool’s midfield woes this season, such a fact alongside Odegaard’s recent form makes that failure to sign him seem even more of a missed opportunity. Throw in the fact that he would now even count as a homegrown player for the Reds had he signed in 2015, and such a failure stings even more. Yet there is no guarantee that the then teenager would have flourished at any alternative elite club at such a young age.
But now the playmaker is consistently showing his talents, no end of clubs will be rueing not signing the 24-year-old when they had the chance. It was Arsenal who took a chance on the Norwegian, initially on loan, and they are now the ones enjoying the fruits of such a decision.
Odegaard was there for the taking, and while Liverpool and Klopp might have continued to follow him after ‘the whole world went berserk,’ no rival move materialised when he left Real Madrid.
Ultimately, Klopp was left disappointed when the Norwegian spurned his advances eight years ago. A penny for the Reds boss’ thoughts now, witnessing Odegaard captain Arsenal to potential Premier League glory as his own Liverpool side continue to flounder.
Now, the German can only hope his find a way to limit the playmaker’s impact at Anfield, and dent the Gunners’ title-hopes in the process, rather than be on the receiving end of him rubbing further salt in their already gaping midfield wounds.
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