Home »
soccer news
» Real Madrid signing Martin Odegaard a 'PR move' - Carlo Ancelotti
Former Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has claimed he stood up to Blancos president Florentino Perez over the "public relations" signing of much-hyped wonderkid Martin Odegaard.
Odegaard
joined Madrid soon after his 16th birthday in January 2015, having been
courted by a long list of top clubs including Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern
Munich, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool,
Southampton and Ajax.
The deal agreed with the player, his father
and former club Stromsgodset, saw Madrid pay a reported fee which could
rise to €8 million, with the Norway international's contract including a
clause which saw him train with first-team stars like Cristiano Ronaldo
and Gareth Bale.
Odegaard was subsequently added to Madrid's
Champions League squad but Ancelotti regularly spoke about the need for
the young player to bide his time and learn his trade. A first-team
debut did not come until the last game of the 2014-15 season, when he
replaced Ronaldo during a 7-3 win over Getafe, and became the youngest
player ever to represent Real Madrid in La Liga.
In an excerpt from his new book, "Quiet Leadership: Winning Hearts, Minds and Matches," picked up by AS,
the now Bayern Munich coach claimed that Madrid chief Perez had wanted
Odegaard to play for the first team for marketing reasons.
"When
Florentino buys a Norwegian footballer, you simply have to accept it,"
Ancelotti wrote. "Furthermore, the president decided that he would play
three games with the first team as a public relations exercise. He could
be the best player in the world, but I don't care because he was not a
player who I asked for. That signing was to do with PR."
Odegaard
also struggled to make an impact at reserve level after arriving in
Spain, being eventually dropped by then-Castilla coach Zinedine Zidane,
despite being a full international for Norway.
When Zidane was
promoted to the first team, successor Luis Miguel Ramis was also not
impressed as the youngster scored just one goal in total during 2015-16,
and was left on the bench for key playoff games late in the campaign.
With
Castilla having failed for a second year running to clinch promotion to
the Segunda Division, AS say the plan for Odegaard's development is to
go on loan next season to gain more experience, with the now
17-year-old's father favouring a move to a Premier League or Bundesliga
side.
CREDIT TO:http://www.espn.co.uk/football/real-madrid/story/2899616/real-madrid-signing-martin-odegaard-a-pr-move-carlo-ancelotti
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your contribution