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At 16, Martin Odegaard’s next move can make or break his next 16 years

By on December 17, 2014

Martin Odegaard, the Norwegian wonder-kid, turned sixteen today. In Norway, he still isn’t able to legally drive to practice, yet it is already clear he needs to move on from Strømsgodset IF. Strømsgodset was the first step on the potential road to international stardom, and now at the age of sixteen, obviously heading places with his immense talent, Odegaard is searching Europe for his next stop. Recently he visited Liverpool and reportedly Arsenal, while others have linked him with Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund as well. Still others claim he is set for trails at Barcelona and Ajax, but the clear idea is that he is interesting the worlds best. At the moment, it looks like he is closest to joining Bayern Munich, having the club’s CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge salivating over him, claiming his club hope to be “the best looking groom” in the race for the “beautiful bride” Martin Odegaard.

At this point, Odegaard is perfectly set up to become one of the world’s best of the next generation. He has ample time to consider his next move, which is only made tricky by the fact that he has so many options. Considering he is still in a developmental stage (again, with all the time in the world to become one of the worlds best), however, his next move could prove his most important.

There isn’t much you can do if he simply doesn’t have the talent to be the world’s best, or proves injury-prone. Those issues are often predetermined by genetics or events from years past. Freddy Adu, billed to be the US’ first football superstar ten years ago at the age of just fourteen in the end didn’t have the talent and in the short few years he showed improvement still failed to find a club with enough patience to wait. Now, still only twenty-five, Adu has lost his way – struggling for match time with a club in the Serbian top division. Yet Odegard is blessed with footballing genes passed down from his father Hans Erik Ødegaard, a former professional for Strømsgodset, one of Norway’s top clubs during his playing days.

What the next club can do, though, is make sure to mold that talent in the best way possible. Too often in English football, starlets are thrown into the deep end and expected to carry their side to the title. Doing so in five years isn’t good enough, it needs to happen now. Take Jack Rodwell as a recent example, once viewed as one of England’s bright prospects, he then moved to Manchester City and hasn’t been heard of since, left on the bench after having failed to make a sufficiently immediate impact on the first team. Odegaard needs tactical development in a suitable club climate. He needs to learn at his own pace, gradually learning to handle more intense pressure.

At only sixteen – not yet driving age in most European countries, including Spain and Germany, perhaps it is best until then that he stays in the metaphorical passenger seat until then. Bayern Munich, at this moment, could be one such club offering exactly what he needs. Obviously Barcelona are also renowned for La Masia, and Odegaard does flash glimpes of Lionel Messi on the pitch. Yet considering recent moves toward buying attacking talent (Suarez, Neymar, Rakitic), the German side could be a safer bet.

At the moment, Bayern obviously don’t need Odegaard on the pitch. He could be given a few cameos in the first team and in the spotlight – Julian Green did so at the World Cup this summer in front of his entire birth country, the US, and is now in a solid position having been loaned to Hamburg SV. Odegaard is already in the eye of the international media, having become the youngest player to play in a European Championships Qualifier earlier this year, but needs the care and culture of a big club before he can reach his potential.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.