Weltnachrichten – AU – Pep Guardiola planned to make Martin Odegaard « the best in the world »

Posted: 17:08 GMT, Jan.. November 2020 | Updated: 17:08 GMT, Dec.. November 2020

Pep Guardiola had plans to make Martin Odegaard the best player in the world when he tried to sign him for Bayern Munich, according to Jan Age Fjortoft.

Odegaard made his league debut for the Norwegian club Stromsgodset at the tender age of 15 years and 118 days, which led to a bidding war between Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Real Madrid for his services.

The then Bayern manager Guardiola was keen to get the German giants to sign the Norwegian and said he could bring the child prodigy to the top of the global game.

Former Middlesbrough and Norway striker Fjortoft was coach at the Norwegian national team camp when Guardiola declared his hopes for Odegaard.

He revealed on the Here We Go podcast that Guardiola told him, ‘ »You have to take this boy to Munich, you have to take him to Munich! I will make him the best player in the world. « 

‘Later, when we got back, I invited Martin, his father and the national coach to my house.

‘At that time I was writing on a piece of paper which four clubs were closest to Odegaard’s signing at the time. Liverpool, Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

‘As you know, Liverpool was his favorite club, his childhood club. I still think the reason he ended up at Real Madrid was very simple. First, Real Madrid had a second team, the other three clubs didn’t.

‘The coach of the second team was Zinedine Zidane. He’s not a bad player, he’s not a bad coach. Michael Reschke, now at Schalke, was responsible for recruiting Munich.

‘I met him after Martin chose Real Madrid and he told me: « If I had known the second team was crucial, I would have built a second team. « . ‘

Odegaard spent two and a half years with Castilla, Real Madrid’s reserve team, before taking an 18-month loan with Dutch team Heerenveen.

After another Eredivisie loan to Vitesse, the 25-man international was on loan from LaLiga for a third season at Real Sociedad.

Real Madrid haven’t added any larger players this summer due to their financial troubles made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.

That means the 21-year-old Odegaard has finally broken into the Bernabeu first-team squad with four league games for Los Blancos this season.

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Real Madrid C. . F.. . , FC Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola, Martin Ødegaard, Jan Åge Fjørtoft, Paris Saint-Germain F. . C.. . , David Alaba, Liverpool F. . C.. . , Manchester City F. . C.. . , France Ligue 1