Martin Odegaard Biography

In recent years the new generation of football promises a bright future. With their double enthusiasm and motivation, they give a new color and look to the world of football. Martin Odegaard is a Norwegian football player who, despite playing professionally at a very young age, has excited the fans with his specialized knowledge and skills. He made his senior debut in a club in his country, Stromsgodset IF, and later on, he could break into the Norwegian national team in 2014. He then became the youngest Real Madrid member in the club's history in 2015 at the age of 16. let's move forward to have an in-depth look at the personal and professional life of Martin Odegaard.

All You Need to Know About Martin Odegaard Biography

The 22-year-old has been one of the youngest footballers of the last decade that very soon rise to a high level of professional football. Like many others, he started playing non-professional football at local clubs in his hometown and country, and after leaving behind amateur football, he now plays for Arsenal, a world-class team. Keep reading to learn more about 

Martin Odegaard life story.

Martin Odegaard information

In the following part of

Martin Odegaard Biography

, you can find some general information about him listed down here.

Martin Odegaard Bio

• Full Name

  : Martin Ødegaard

• Nickname

  : El-Rey

• Profession

  : Professional Football Player

Martin Odegaard Physical Stats

• Weight

  : 68 Kilograms

• Height

  : 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in

• Eye Color

  : Blue

• Hair Color

  : Brown 

Martin Odegaard  Football Information

• Position

  : Attacking midfielder

• Jersey Number

  : 11

• Professional Debut

  : 2014

Martin Odegaard  Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth

  : 17 December 1998

• Birth Place

  : Drammen, Norway

• Zodiac Sign

  : Sagittarius

• Martin Odegaard Nationality

  : Norwegian 

• Martin Odegaard Religion

  : Christian 

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Martin Odegaard Early Life

In this section of

Martin Odegaard Biography

, we will have a glance at his early life. He was born on  17 December 1998 in Drammen, Norway. He started his amateur football career in his hometown club, the local sports club Drammen Strong which his father co-founded and also was the head coach. From an early age, his parents and even his club focused on his development. They agreed to pay 50,000 kroner each to repair the club's gravel field, that is said to have played a significant role in the development of young Martin. He spent 4 years in his first junior club and later on in 2009, he joined  Strømsgodset's youth team. In addition to his activities at the club, according to the policy of the Norwegian Football Federation to organizes young talents in local district teams the young Martin, who was 10 years old at the time, was selected to play the Buskerud team in January 2010. Buskerud's coach, after seeing Martin's talent and abilities, who was 2 or 3 years younger than his teammates at the time, said: "Handles things brilliantly. Good choices. Good touch, smart in position game". Ødegaard trained with this team weekly for the next three years. He mostly played left-back, as the coaches felt this would give him a positive experience with many ball touches while still playing against physically much stronger players. In attack, he was given free rein due to his ability to "see solutions and spaces that we as coaches were not even close to thinking about."

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Martin Odegaard Profile

In this division of Martin Odegaard biography, we will review his professional career from his early days until now that he is indeed one of the greatest attacking midfielders in football history. As mentioned above, this prolific young midfielder in 2009 joined Strømsgodset's youth team. In 2012, he started his training sessions with the main team, at that time he was thirteen years old. In the same year, he made his debut in a mid-season friendly match against local rivals Mjøndalen IF. In the following year, before joining the main team, he both played for Strømsgodset's junior team and the club's third team at the fifth tier of Norwegian senior football. After two years when he turned 15, it was officiated that the young Martin would play for the main team. So, having spent almost six years with the youth team he, later on, got promoted to Strømsgodset's main team. Despite the competition's rules stating that to play in Tippeligaen, players must have a professional contract to be eligible, Strømsgodset didn't sign a professional contract and instead, they put his name on the "B-list" for amateur players, which made him eligible for up to three matches per season.  

During his early days at the club, as he was still young and had to pass the obligatory education, he couldn't participate in the morning training sessions, he was also obliged to train with Mjøndalen IF, a semi-professional First Division team at the time, where his father was one of the coaches.  On 13 April 2014, he was given the chance to play in his league debut for Strømsgodset in a match against Aalesunds FK at Marienlyst Stadion. At that date, he aged 15 years and 118 days so he was entitled as the youngest footballer ever to play in Tippeligaen. A month after, in May, his league debut, the club offered him to sign a professional contract which kept him in the club until the end of 2015. As the result of his professional contact, he was able to fully play for the club which meant the limitation of three matches per season was no longer applicable. Almost ten days after his professional agreement he could score the first professional goal that brought him more fame. Once he scored his fourth goal for Strømsgodset in a 4–1 home win match against Sarpsborg 08 FF, he became the youngest goalscorer in Tippeligaen.

On 16 July, only a month after his senior debut he took a bigger step and made his European debut as Lars-Christopher Vilsvik substitution in a 1–0 home defeat to Steaua București in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round. In that match, he just played in the final five minutes of the game but it was a big step for the young Odegaard. It was in late July of that year that the possibility of Martin Oudgard being invited to the Norwegian national team was raised. In those days, some believed that Martin was still young to play for the senior national team and should not be in a hurry. Even the former manager of the national team, Nils Johan Semb, said: "Martin is one of the best 15-year-olds in Europe," but he also added that he should not be rushed into the national team.

Regardless of all the dispute over Martin and the national team, he continued his football even more seriously and after 6 years in his own country, he started training with other clubs such as

and

. But at last, he ended an agreement with the Spanish side,

. On 21 January 2015, it was officiated that Real Madrid and Strømsgodset reached an agreement. Following his deal, the club stated that Ødegaard would practice with both the club's first team and the reserves,

. He would play for the latter team, which was coached by Zinedine Zidane at the time. As soon as Martin Oudgard joined Real, he was widely criticized. His former mental coach believed that Martin would become a world star in the world of football in the future, but Real was not a good option for him and he could not fully develop his talent in this team.

Anyway, on 4 February he made his unofficial debut for the reserves in a friendly match against

. He was later given the jersey number 21 and even was invited to be on the UEFA Champions League squad. He remained in the reserves team till 2016 and 679 days after signing for the club he started playing for the main team and was named the youngest debutant in the history of the club at 16 years and 157 days old.  But Martin Oudgard's situation at Real did not went very well and despite the possibility of signing a contract with

, in 2017 he was transferred on loan to another team. On 10 January 2017

confirmed that Ødegaard would join them on loan for 18 months. Four days later, he made his Eredivisie debut match against

. As his loan contract finished, on 21 August 2018 it was published by Real Madrid that Odegaard would join another Dutch team,

. In less than a year, on 5 July 2019, once again he was loaned to

for one season, and fortunately, he could perform that well that he was chosen as the La Liga Player of the Month in September 2019.

After a few years, Martin still failed to play for Real Madrid so once again On 27 January 2021 he went on loan to an English side,

, and soon, after three days he made his premier league debut against

Despite his not-so-good situation at Real, Arsenal welcomed him well. As he joined the Gunners, Arsenal manager said: We are delighted to welcome Martin to the club until the end of the season. I would like to thank everyone at Real Madrid and Martin’s representatives for their collaboration in making this loan move happen. Martin is an exceptional talent and we are strengthening our squad by introducing an exciting offensive player to the club for the remaining months of this season, It’s great that we’ve secured Martin to come to us until the end of the season. Martin is of course a player that we all know very well and although still young, he has been playing at the top level for a while. Martin will provide us with quality offensive options and we’re all excited to be integrating him into our plans".  Stay tuned to read more about

Martin Odegaard Biography

 and get to know him better.

Style of Play

According to many football icons and critics, Martin Odegaard will become a football star in the future. Recently in an article in The Liverpool Echo, an English newspaper, Odegaard describe as an attack-minded midfielder very much in the modern mold. Diminutive, quick-footed, with natural balance, pace and, perhaps surprisingly for one so young, excellent shooting power". As an attacking midfielder, he can perform very well in dribbling with the ball at his feet, taking on players, and navigating through the lines. He is also known for playing lofted balls for players who rush into the box. He is fast both inside and outside the ball and likes to have freedom on the field to show his technical skills. He is a resilient player and can easily get out of the pressure of the opponent. His vision is unimaginable and only enhances with his growth. 

Reception

His techniques and talent are such great  that from the very beginning of his football career, David Nielsen, his manager at Strømsgodset, his first professional team, compared him to some football icons such as Messi and David Silva, However Jan Åge Fjørtoft, the former Norwegian footballer believes that" Comparing Ødegaard to Messi is nonsense from the media. Messi is a player who can make the difference and Martin can do the same, but any comparisons should not be taken seriously". He was one of the players who was invited to the national team of his country at a very young age and from the very beginning with his great technique, he attracted a lot of attention. At age 12, he fascinated Lars Tjærnåsm, the former football manager during a nationwide tournament for under-16s, he said: The best 15-year-olds in the country were gathered for a tournament between the top clubs... It was definitely not the first time he had astonished his opponents or the spectators. He was three or four years younger than the others. It was impossible not to realize that we were witnessing something out of the ordinary".

As he started playing professionally, Morten Gamst Pedersen, the current midfielder of Alta, expressed his astonishment and he said that Ødegaard needed time to develop the physical aspects of the sport. For Pedersen, the 22-year old Norwegian footballer is the most talented player he had ever seen. He declared that "For his age he is unbelievable – his knowledge of the game is unbelievable and his technical skills are fantastic".  One of those who always accompanied Martin Odegaard on his path to progress is his father. He believes: "It's the pace of the game that makes the difference in adjusting to different levels. We've used so many hours in working with his first and second touch to take off the pressure. We have worked a lot on bringing the ball closely to his feet, so he can change direction quickly, so even if he's physically weaker than the others he doesn't get caught because he's able to get away."

Goal Celebration

Martin Odegaard so far doesn't have any goal celebration as his own signature. During his professional career, he could score 32 goals in his clubs. 

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Martin Odegaard Outside Football

Currently, the 22-year-old Norwegian footballer has no extra-activities and is engaged in football with all his concentration and attention. stay tuned as we take a look at

Martin Odegaard biography

to have a better view of his personal life.

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Martin Odegaard Personal Life

Martin Odegaard childhood

spent in a sportive family as he is the son of Hans Erik Ødegaard, a former footballer. Hans Eric Odegaard had a relatively short career than his son and never represented his country. However, he never quit football, as a midfielder he played for Strømsgodset from 1993 to 2003 and Sandefjord from 2004 to 2006. He also played in both Tippeligaen and the Norwegian First Division. After being retired, the senior Odegaard became the assistant manager for Mjøndalen IF in 2009, and later on, he was appointed as the Real Madrid youth coach on 22 January 2015 at the same time as his son's agreement with Real Madrid Castilla. 

Family, Children, and Relationships

The young Martin Odegaard is not married at the moment, and since all his focus in life is on his career, no information is available about his current relationships but, in the past, the 22-year-old Martin was said to have had a relationship with his high school girlfriend, Oda Burud. They have been together for more than two years. Although their relationship was not officially approved, they often shared pictures of themselves on their social media accounts.

Philanthropy

Regarding his philanthropy and charity works, no information is available of course, he may, like many people and players, prefer not to make this public.

Legal Issues

Fortunately, it is safe to say that he has not had any legal problems in his life, which is not that much surprising, because he has been brought as a well-informed young boy. According to Klaus Pettersen, his former mental coach: " He grew up in a Christian home and the faith in God is strong and present in the family," he said. "These values he has inherited from his family. They are a part of his personality and as I see it is also a big part of why he can be so focused. It is a focus on positive values and co-operation with others." 

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Martin Odegaard Career Statistics

Following

Martin Odegaard biography

, in this part, we would have a rundown of his Career Statistics. 

Clubs

Martin Odegaard started his senior football in 2014 with Strømsgodset. He spent only a year in this Norwegian club and during this time he could make 23 appearances and score 5 goals. Later on, he signed with Real Madrid Castilla and after some time he could break into the main team. He managed to play in 58 matches for Real Madrid and scored 5 goals before joining other teams on loan. in 2017 he joined his first loan side, Heerenveen. In a year with this Dutch football club, he made 38 appearances and score 3 goals. In 2018, he joined Vitesse, another Dutch team and after 31 games and 8 goals, he returned to Spain to play for Real Sociedad as a loan Midfielder. Till the end of 2020, he could make 31 appearances and score 4 goals he moved to The Primer League to play for Arsenal. 

International

Martin Odegaard started playing for the U15 Norway national team in 2013. On 17 and 19 September 2013 he was in the starting line-up for Norway's two home matches against Sweden. After a year he represented the Under16 Norway team in a tournament in January 2014 against Scotland, the United States, and France in Turkey. He was given the chance to play a full 90 minutes in all three matches. Following that year, he was invited to the senior

team to represent in a senior international against the United Arab Emirates in Stavanger. At that time he was only 15 years old, he broke the Tormod Kjellsen (who was 15 years and 351 days on his debut in 1910) record and became the youngest player to play for Norway at senior level, at 15 years and 253 days.  He later participated in the UEFA Euro 2016 qualification, so at the age of 15 years and 300 days, he became the youngest player to ever play in a European Championship qualifier, breaking Icelander Sigurður Jónsson since 1983. Stay tuned to read more about

Martin Odegaard Biography

and find out what awards and titles he has won.

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Martin Odegaard honors

It's been only seven years that this technical player  entered the world of professional football , but in this short period of time, he managed to win significant individual awards. The list of honors of this 22-year-old Norwegian player will be much more fruitful in the not too distant future. He has managed to win the Tippeligaen Young Player of the Year in 2014, the Idrettsgallaen Breakthrough of the Year in 2014, the Eredivisie Player of the Month in April 2019, the Eredivisie Talent of the Month in May 2019, the Eredivisie Team of the Year in 2018–19, the La Liga Player of the Month in September 2019, the Gullballen in 2019, the UEFA La Liga Revelation Team of the Year in 2019–20.

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