Martin Odegaard looked like he was going backwards at Real Madrid but is now their new Galatico

Martin Odegaard looked like he was going backwards after joining Real Madrid with a lavish presentation, big salary and lots of hype aged just 15… six years on, he has become the Galatico they didn’t sign last summer as he fills the Eden Hazard void

  • Real Madrid travel to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Tuesday
  • The Spanish giants will be relying heavily on Martin Odegaard during the match
  • Odegaard will provide a creative spark they lack due to Eden Hazard’s injury
  • He has come a long way from the 15-year-old who joined the club in 2015

Eden Hazard’s box of tricks are back in the drawer until 2021 after yet another injury setback. Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland remain just twinkles in Zinedine Zidane’s eye, unlikely to arrive at the club before next summer at the very earliest. Therefore it has fallen to 21-year-old Martin Odegaard to light up what, at times this season, has become a rather dull Real Madrid team.

That will be the story again on Tuesday night in Kiev as Madrid go in search of the three points that will see them through to the last 16 of the Champions League. And if Odegaard does become the main attraction, on Tuesday and going into the new year, it will highlight how clever the club was to sign him in January 2015 when others believed it was an over-the-top investment in one so young.

There were times after Madrid made Odegaard their first teenage Galatico with an ostentatious presentation, a big salary, and first-team training and pre-season tour participation written into his contract that the huge talent from Norway was going backwards. He was a Norwegian full international when Real Madrid signed him from Stromsgodset but he found himself back in their Under 21s after a frustrating time at his new club.

Real Madrid will be looking to Martin Odegaard against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday night

Real Madrid will be looking to Martin Odegaard against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday night

Odegaard's influence in this Real Madrid team is growing in the absence of other personnel

Odegaard’s influence in this Real Madrid team is growing in the absence of other personnel

There will be no forward Eden Hazard for the trip to Ukraine after suffering yet another injury

There will be no forward Eden Hazard for the trip to Ukraine after suffering yet another injury

Odegaard has come a long way from the 15-year-old that Real signed back in January 2015

Odegaard has come a long way from the 15-year-old that Real signed back in January 2015

But a series of loan deals matured him and the very last of those, at Real Sociedad, looked set to extend into this season until the coronavirus pandemic changed football’s financial landscape. When Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said last summer: ‘The situation is very bad and that is why there will not be any big signings,’ the spotlight immediately fell on Odegaard who was rushed back to the Spanish capital to fill the hole left by the absence of a new arrival.

Perhaps it was because of the need to make Odegaard’s accelerated return work that he started the first game of the season against Real Sociedad despite complaints of tendinitis in his right knee. It’s an injury that can only really be remedied by rest and it seemed to flare up again after that first game. He was taken off at half-time in the second match of the season and then did not play in the next five.

He is still yet to play 90 minutes for Madrid but the 58 minutes he played against Inter Milan in the Champions League last week reminded supporters why they were so excited that he was coming back last summer. It was a glimpse of the player who until lockdown last season was most people’s pick for player of the year.

After his exertions against Inter, Odegaard was left out the starting XI again at the weekend and Madrid slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Alaves. When the question was posed post-game: How can the same team that beat Inter Milan so convincingly at the Giuseppe Meazza lose three days later at home to lowly Alaves, many commentators made the point – well it isn’t the same team; Odegaard was not playing.

Against Inter Milan last week, Odegaard was brilliant as Real won 2-0 at the San Siro

Against Inter Milan last week, Odegaard was brilliant as Real won 2-0 at the San Siro

He came on as a substitute against Alaves on Saturday - and Real missed his presence dearly

He came on as a substitute against Alaves on Saturday – and Real missed his presence dearly

Real Madrid played more passes in the game against Inter than in any of their matches so far this season. In contrast against Alaves, without Odegaard, until he came on with 20 minutes left, they were reduced to crosses into the area easily dealt with by their opponents.

Marca reported that Madrid had played 796 passes against Inter but just 563 against Alaves. Odegaard had been the difference between the fantasy football played in Italy and the functional stuff Madrid turned out on Saturday.

Coach Zidane, who has grown increasingly agitated by reporters’ questions in recent weeks, said after the Inter game: ‘When these players need to deliver they deliver.’ But he knows that needs to happen in every game. ‘Every game matters when you are Real Madrid’, he added in the next breath. 

He would like to play Odegaard in every match but he also knows he paid for that decision to pitch him in at the start of the season because the tendinitis problem was aggravated and he was then without his Norwegian international for five games.

Madrid right now, are missing not just the magic of Hazard but also the drive and ability to win the ball back high up the pitch of Fede Valverde who has a cracked tibia. That makes Odegaard doubly important.

Zinedine Zidane would like to play Odegaard more but can't due to his ongoing knee tendinitis

Zinedine Zidane would like to play Odegaard more but can’t due to his ongoing knee tendinitis 

Zidane knows Odegaard well having worked with him when he first joined the club in 2015

Zidane knows Odegaard well having worked with him when he first joined the club in 2015

He has been welcomed back with open arms into a dressing room that remembers the slightly awkward situation in his first spell when he trained with the superstars out of contractual obligation and not merit.

He has come back a more rounded player and a 21-year-old matured beyond his years by his loan spell experiences. Before he was given an importance that his form did not deserve. Now he is crucial and yet under-stated in the way he conducts himself at the club’s Valdebebas training ground.

He was rested for the Alaves game at the weekend and Madrid paid for it. On Tuesday night against Shakhtar Donetsk he should be back.

Real Madrid took a big gamble five years ago but in the midst of this pandemic and all its restrictions on spending – and with the last of the big signings, Hazard, hampered by injury – it could well really begin to pay off.

source: dailymail.co.uk