After spending two years muddling around in the Castilla at Real Madrid, one-time Norwegian wunderkind Martin Odegaard has today completed an 18-month loan move to Heerenveen.
As a 15-year-old, Odegaard enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence after starring for Stromsgodset in the 2014 Tippeligaen season, defying his tender years to weigh in with a shed-load of goals and assists.
He also became the youngest ever player to take the field for Norway in August (breaking a record that had stood for over 100 years) that same year before signing for Real in a €3million deal the following January.
However, the now-18-year-old found first-team football unsurprisingly hard to come by at the Bernabeu, making just two senior appearances in as many years.
And so, today Young Lord Odegaard begins anew with a much-needed transfer to pretty much anywhere else…
Welcome @martinio98! 💙⚽️🔥 pic.twitter.com/tyzkZw5OmS
— sc Heerenveen (@scHeerenveen) January 10, 2017
“I am very happy to be here at Heerenveen. I am just a normal boy,” Odegaard insisted at his grand unveiling.
Hopefully, amid the relatively ordinary confines of the Eredivisie, he can begin proving that he’s anything but normal all over again.