Yes, you know who I’m referring to.
They say patterns often repeat themselves in football and this may well be true. Because now, with the World Cup all but a sweet memory, once again the predominant, most eye-catching storyline in the Premier League is that of a Norwegian phenomenon who arrived on these shores to perhaps slightly less fanfare, but who has also undoubtedly helped elevate his team to a new level.
Where one plays in blue, the other is red. A Gunner, to be more precise. That player is Martin Odegaard. And as Arsenal sit top of the table, with Manchester City chasing their tail five points further back, it looks like the 2022/23 Premier League season may end up being decided by the battle of the brilliant Norwegians – Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard – a tale of two wonderkids as English football’s top league takes on something of a Nordic twist.
It is nearly eight years to the day since a 16-year-old Martin Odegaard and his then club Stromsgodset reached an agreement with the mighty Real Madrid to sign a kid who, at the time, was the most highly-coveted prospect in world football.
Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and indeed Arsenal had all been monitoring the Norwegian closely after he broke into the first team of his Norwegian club at just 15 years of age, before he was even allowed to train full-time with them because he had to be at school during the day.
Fast forward eight years, four loan spells in three different countries and just eight appearances in the famous white shirt of Madrid and Odegaard has today re-emerged to establish himself as one of the Premier League’s best players and a crucial part of this new look Arsenal team that could be set to end a near-twenty year wait for a league title.
Odegaard is the poster boy of an emerging trend in football that I would like to declare the ‘Post-Wonderkid’.
The Post-Wonderkid is a player who, largely thanks to the hungry, machine-like churn of modern football’s sugar rush to find the next big thing, gets hyped up to insane levels through no fault of their own. Submerged in the desperate search of media, fans and football clubs alike to uncover and anoint the game’s next king.
The Post-Wonderkid is hyped, written about in incredulous, yearning tones, the player your club simply must sign despite usually being a mere teenager. The fleeting, gazing eye of modern football casts upon them through the virtue of exciting performances at youth level or the words of a coach or scout.
The Post-Wonderkid gets massively hyped up, overhyped in all honesty, before finally a big move comes. Suddenly all expectations are that he or she will develop instantly, adapt immediately and deliver on this untold promise and all lofty expectations that have been thrust upon them.
When, as is often inevitable, these ridiculously high expectations are not immediately realised, the hype fades. Our collective attention span is too short to watch the player develop in their own time. Patience is too unsettling a virtue for the football world.
And so the machine moves on to the next toy, the next talent in another far-flung corner of the globe. The player is deemed a disappointment, a flop even. The gaze latches onto someone else. The Post-Wonderkid is left to carry on with their career away from those early flashbulbs of attention and continue on the journey of trying to realising their undoubted potential.
Martin Odegaard is the perfect example of the Post-Wonderkid. The early hype, the Madrid years of doubts, the global attention moving on. And now, the reawakening.
It feels almost like a trick of the mind to think that the Norwegian has only just turned 24. He has faced the glare of the world’s spotlight for close to a decade and yet has not even reached his peak.
The youngest footballer ever to play in Norway’s top flight. The youngest player ever to play for Norway’s national team. The youngest player ever to play for Real Madrid. The poster boy for the Post-Wonderkid (other examples could include Mario Gotze or Jadon Sancho, while Endrick is the latest in a long line).
Away from the glare of the world’s spotlight Martin Odegaard has seven goals and five assists in 17 league appearances for Arsenal this season. He has 16 goals and 12 assists in 82 games for the Gunners. He is their captain, a quiet leader who diligently gets on with his job of knitting the team together with his outstanding technical ability, vision, understanding of the game and eye for a pass.
Against Brighton and Hove Albion, the final game of 2022, the Arsenal wizard showed what he is all about. A goal and assist in an exceptional performance, Odegaard displayed all the attributes that had Europe’s top clubs scrambling for his signature a decade ago.
A driving, aggressive run through midfield as early as the opening minute to carve Brighton open, set them on the back foot and help create Bukayo Saka’s opener. An exceptional choice of pass selection into the final third. Unbelievably quick feet and outstanding close control in tight spaces. THAT pass to set up Gabriel Martinelli for Arsenal’s fourth goal in the 71st minute.
It was a performance of the highest order, one that epitomises what a player Odegaard is, was and still can be as he approaches his peak years.
His manager Mikel Arteta raves about him. “His attitude, his willingness to learn and his application is always incredible. And when you have those ingredients normally good things happen and Martin is in a really good moment.”
“He is defining games, he is having a different kind of presence on the pitch and I really like what he is doing. He is our captain and can still develop a lot.”
It has not been all plain sailing for Odegaard at Arsenal however. When he first joined the club on loan from Real Madrid he had spells in and out of the team. Some fans even questioned why they spent more than £30 million to make his move permanent.
But it was during these down times that Odegaard proved himself to Arteta, displaying his character, determination and not only a willingness to succeed but a humility to continue to want to learn along the way.
“Martin has a lot of qualities that we want as a captain… one of them is that he thinks about the team before himself,” said Arteta last summer.
“He had a period at the start where he wasn’t playing, he was the first in training, the last to leave, asking the right questions – why he wasn’t playing, what he had to do – he was always listening, he was always helping his teammates. His attitude was absolutely phenomenal.”
It was during this time that Arteta saw enough to decide the Norwegian would be the ideal captain to lead this new Arsenal project.
And as the Gunners head into 2023 sitting clear at the top of the Premier League, their ‘Post-Wonderkid’ captain could end up being just as important in this title race as his fellow compatriot, the headline-grabbing Haaland up in Manchester.