Real Madrid: Why Martin Odegaard must be among the unsellable

Real Madrid have a large number of talented young players who have either broken out recently or are on the verge of breaking out in the near future. Whether they are established first-team players like Fede Valverde, loanees like Brahim Diaz, or Castilla products like Antonio Blanco, Real have more than a handful of players who can help Carlo Ancelotti field another league-challenging side in 2021-2022.

Martin Odegaard needs to be at the top of the list of young players who can make a big impact next season. Madridistas thought Odegaard would be an important part of the team last year after Zinedine Zidane asked for his return to the club, instead of sending him off for a second year to Real Sociedad.

Instead, Odegaard barely played in the first half of the season due to a combination of a logjam of players and a lingering knee issue. Tired of waiting, Odegaard requested a loan and moved to North London, where he played decently well for a poor Arsenal side.

That loan spell in the Premier League led to some transfer rumors that Odegaard could remain with Arsenal, or, at least, spend another year on loan with Mikel Arteta. Even though those rumors have subsided, MARCA’s Jose Felix Diaz did recently mention that Odegaard could be “susceptible” to a transfer if a major offer were to come through.

Martin Odegaard is arguably Real Madrid’s highest-upside player

Let’s make something clear. Odegaard should not be for sale under any circumstances. If Brahim Diaz is someone Real should hold onto – and I do fully agree that he is – then Odegaard is most definitely someone who needs a shot to succeed with Real Madrid.

Odegaard can blossom as an attacking midfielder under No. 10-friendly manager Carlo Ancelotti. Real hired Ancelotti to get the most out of Real’s current pieces, and there are few players with more upside than Odegaard.

The praise for Odegaard is not merely based on potential or prognostication. Unlike some of his colleagues, Odegaard has shown brilliance in LaLiga, playing at a higher level than most players in Spain during a wonderful 2019-2020 campaign with La Real.

A player of that quality is worth an incredible amount to Real Madrid, and they surely wouldn’t get a fee reaching that value. Moreover, Odegaard is still just 22 years old for all of his experience on multiple loans, which means we should, theoretically, see a considerably better version of Odegaard in the future than even the 2019-2020 iteration in San Sebastian.

You can’t give up on a player like that. You cannot even contemplate selling him, especially if you are a club thinking of “Revolutions” and rebuilds in a few years. Martin Odegaard is a player Real Madrid can build around in the next five years, but he is also a player who can significantly help the team in the next season.

Madridistas still dream of Odegaard springing Karim Benzema and the other forwards open with teasing through balls, or curling beautiful finessed efforts into the top corner from range. He is a classy, creative star on a team that was starved for creativity for much of the 2020-2021 season. Though the true unsellables to Real are “old guard” stars like Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema, in addition to the impervious goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Odegaard is an unsellable commodity to Los Merengues in his own right.