Martin Odegaard reveals reason for 'weird connection' with Arsenal since childhood
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has revealed that he had a ‘weird connection’ to the Gunners long before actually joining the club in 2021 thanks to growing up playing FIFA games.
Odegaard is leading Arsenal’s charge towards the 2022/23 Premier League title, which if they see it out would be the club’s first since the Invincibles team of 2003/04.
But it was a long road to north London, having burst onto the scene with boyhood club Stromsgodset in his early teens, before moving to Real Madrid at 16 and later spending time on loan at Vitesse Arnhem, Heerenveen and Real Sociedad.
Arsenal initially took Odegaard on loan in January 2021, making it a permanent for a sum in the region of €35m plus add-ons a few months later. He has been a central part of the project being overseen by manager Mikel Arteta and was made captain ahead of this season.
“Me and Arsenal. It just seemed like a good match in my head,” Odegaard, now 24, explained in a piece for The Players’ Tribune.
“I’ve always had this weird connection to Arsenal. It started long before I signed.”
The reason was FIFA’s Career Mode, coupled with watching the Premier League at home in Norway.
“The club I always chose to manage was Arsenal. They were my FIFA team,” he said.
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“Growing up in Norway, I watched a lot of the Premier League and I just had this good feeling about Arsenal. I’d seen clips of Thierry Henry and the Invincibles. I knew the club had a history of developing playmakers like [Cesc] Fabregas, [Samir] Nasri, [Mesut] Ozil – really smart, technical players, who were good on the ball and played the difficult passes. My kind of players.
“As I got older, around the 2015 edition, I started actually appearing in FIFA. I didn’t look much like me at first. I think I was a 67 overall, but I was actually in the game and it was a big deal.
“Naturally, one of the first things I did when I was pretending to be Arsene Wenger on Career Mode was to buy myself.”
Having spent plenty of years bouncing around in his early career and never really finding home, Odegaard went on to say that being at Arsenal has given him the ‘stability’ that has been missing.
“I’m so proud to be captain of this club and I feel like I’m going to be here for a long time,” he said.
“Whenever I lead the team out at the Emirates, I have this moment to myself. I always listen as they play North London Forever over the speaker and I start singing along under my breath. I get goosebumps every time.”