Martin Ødegaard needs to move away from Real Madrid

Martin Ødegaard was a teenage sensation in Norway, and it persuaded Real Madrid to fork out the cash for him. But is Ødegaard getting the match time he needs at such a young age?

The 17-year-old made the move to Spain at the age of 16 and his story was captured by the footballing world, but a year down the line his name has left the headlines, and he hasn’t played very much football over the past 12 months. A career that was on such a high in January of 2015, especially after a positive showing for the Real Madrid Castilla team in his first game, has all gone fairly quiet since then.Ødegaard’s development has somewhat stalled.

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Although he is still only 17 and still well ahead of some players in his development, at his age he can’t be sitting on the bench and not playing. Since his arrival he has only made 36 appearances for Real Madrid Castilla and was dropped from the match day squad after a run of four defeats. There were also problems with him settling in, and he was training with the first team but playing for the reserves.

He made his first team debut on the final day of last season in a 7-3 victory over Getafe, becoming Madrid’s youngest ever debutant at the age of 16. However, he is still failing to get the game time he needs to progress. Training with some of the world’s best players will without doubt give him some fantastic experience and guidance, but he needs game time.

I wouldn’t consider the Norwegian international for a permanent move away from Real Madrid — they would not have spent that money on him if he didn’t have world-class potential — but I feel that a loan move to somewhere in Europe may enhance his game time and give him the much-needed match fitness and experience he is looking for.

Only recently has Ødegaard come out publicly and said that he would like a loan move to gain some first team experience, something he hasn’t really had properly during his professional career. After Real Madrid snapped him up a such a young age, experience has been irregular for him and to continue his development and live up to his potential he needs to be playing regularly in a first team somewhere.

Even a move to Celtic has been on the cards but never managed to happen in January, so he has stuck on the bench for the Madrid B team and has even been dropped down to the Norway u21’s due to his lack of first team action.

A lot of people are quick to shoot him down because he hasn’t made an instant impact at Madrid, but people forget that he is only just 17 years old and still has years ahead of other young players. However, the only down side for Ødegaard is that Zidane hasn’t seemed to favour him during his time at the club. When Zidane was manager of the B team Ødegaard often found himself on the bench or even dropped and now he is first team manager Ødegaard may find it even harder to break into the first team. So a move away may give him a chance to prove himself as one of the best youngsters in world football.

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Ødegaard needs to leave Real Madrid

By Jake Cole | Mar 9, 2016