Arsenal’s Odegaard Link May Be More Than Just Paper Talk

Norwegian prodigy Martin Odegaard has been linked with Arsenal five years after he spent a short period ‘on trial’ at the club. Odegaard has been impressing on loan at Real Sociedad this season, whom he joined after a successful stint at Vitesse Arhhem in the Netherlands.

The 20-year-old has scored two goals in six appearances for the Basque outfit, who have started the season well and currently lie fifth in La Liga, and there has been talk that his parent club Real Madrid will take him back at the earliest opportunity.

The Bernabeu giants won the race to sign Odegaard when he turned 16 – beating the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Arsenal to his signature.

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The Gunners even had him over for a look around the training ground and to meet Arsene Wenger and the first-team squad in December 2014 as the player and his father toured all the top clubs to get a feel for which one to choose.

He chose Madrid and made over 60 appearances for their B team and two for the senior line-up before he embarked on his tour of the low countries, starting out on loan at Heerenveen before switching to Vitesse.

And Odegaard did sign an extension to his Real Madrid contract before making the loan switch to San Sebastian, which could be extended into a second year if all three parties agree to it.

Therefore Zinedine Zidane – if he is still in charge by then – won’t see Odegaard report for training at Real until 2021 and a lot can happen in the meantime that could change the plans of the club and the player.

The Gunners were able to prise Dani Ceballos away from the Bernabeu this summer, taking advantage of the fact that Real had so many talented players in his position that Zidane could not accommodate therm all.