Martin Odegaard may have been grateful to Cristiano Ronaldo, his Real Madrid colleague, for the generous pat on the back he gave him last week.
Odegaard has slipped somewhat backstage lately. Thanks to Ronaldo, his name was back in circulation once the superstar, promoting his own movie, said he rated the Norwegian as one of the best young players in the world.
Odegaard is probably still the most celebrated 16-year-old footballer currently at work. But that is only a probability, and maybe a temporary state of affairs.
A fresh group of starlets in their mid-teens have lately been advertising themselves to a wide audience. Boys like the Nigerian Victor Osimhen, who emerged from the Fifa Under 17 World Cup in Chile with a winner’s medal, and a landmark tally of goals.
Osimhen scored 10 times in the competition, and has his advisers filtering through the various offers from European clubs apparently being prepared for him. He does not turn 17 until next month.
Odegaard is almost his exact contemporary. The difference is you no longer find him playing in Norway’s U17s, or other national age-group teams any more.
He joined Madrid from Stromsgodset in January, less than a month after he turned 16, ushered into the club with all the hype of a Ronaldo-lite.
Then he began the hard part: Growing up as a would-be superstar at an elite, competitive club.
Odegaard made a cameo appearance, as a substitute for Ronaldo, for the Madrid first team in the final Primera Liga match of last season.
He has not been called on by them in 2015/16 and was omitted from new coach Rafa Benitez’s squad for the Uefa Champions League.
On Thursday night, or perhaps on Sunday, he will likely be required to raise his game abruptly, if Norway choose to use his fine dribbling skills to gain an advantage in either leg of their play-off against Hungary for a place at Euro 2016.
Odegaard is still a starlet of huge promise in the eyes of his compatriots, and has set records in their qualifying run for next summer’s finals in France. He became Norway’s youngest international, age 14, in a friendly against UAE in August 2014. He played in four of their Euro 2016 group matches, twice for the full 90 minutes.
To expect any 16-year-old player to march into a man’s sport without some setbacks is to expect too much. Look down the roll-call from previous editions of the U17 World Cup and there is plenty of proof of that. Some of the modern greats did shine in that company – Spain’s Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas for instance – but many more failed to turn prodigious potential into long-term excellence.
If Osimhen graduates as well as his predecessor, Kalechi Ieheancho, as leader of the Nigerian Eaglets forward line at U17 level, he will have done well.
Iheanacho recently made his debut, and scored, in the Premier League for Manchester City. Two years ago, he was voted best player at the UAE staging of the U17 World Cup, where Nigeria achieved the fourth of their five gold medals in that tournament.
Osimhen made use of some of the advantages of his pronounced physical maturity, notably height and a long stride, to impose himself on defenders at the Chile tournament.
Up against older players, those advantages may be less conspicuous. Odegaard’s fortes, his control and passing, are distinct, but he, too, has progress to make in aspects of his game: his positional instincts and tactical nous.
He has the good fortune to develop those practising alongside Madrid’s first teamers. At the same time Odegaard has yet to command a regular place in the club’s feeder side, Castilla, who play in the third tier of Spanish football.
It is a big leap from there to a European Championship finals, and his instincts, should Norway go through against Hungary, may be to seek a loan deal to play his club football at a higher level from January. The better to ready himself for senior internationals in June.
For that, he can seek counsel, perhaps from Ronaldo. Odegaard told Norwegian television the influence of the Portuguese is especially appreciated.
“He has given me various pieces of advice,” the teenager said. “I try to learn as much as I can from him.”
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