Since he made history as the youngest player to represent his local club Strmsgodset in the Tippeligaen at the age of 15, Martin Odegaard has been a prominent figure in Danish society.

Martin Odegaard is one of the few players who perhaps did actually “burst onto the scene” in the footballing world. The expression is used more often than it should be these days.

The mercurial Norwegian playmaker, who has age-defying potential, began working with more experienced players in 2012 when he was just 13 years old.

He created history for his hometown team Strmsgodset two years later when, at the age of 15, he came off the bench in a league match for the first team.

It attracted the interest of what seemed to be the whole footballing community, with many European powerhouses now firmly focused on the port city of Drammen, Norway, to see what all the commotion was about.

The idea that a baby-faced youngster with at least one more year of school left was in charge of their midfield may have astonished the home supporters, but it wasn’t a surprise to those who knew him well.Exclusive interviews with two influential members of the Strmsgodset hierarchy who watched Odegaard’s ascent to football superstardom were conducted by Mirror Football.Magne Jordan Nilsen, the club’s chief executive officer, described the moment he realized the current Arsenal player was unlike any other young potential he had ever seen.He was with us for preseason in Marbella when he was 15 years old, and during that game against a Hungarian team, he played as a 6 in the center of the field.”Martin, who was only 15 at the time, completely dominated the game. I recall the coaches and players saying, “This is something we have just witnessed, and it is something we will never see again in our lifetimes.Nilsen quipped, “I didn’t want to inform anyone since they were going to sign him right immediately.At the age of 15, he displayed superstar-level play.The marketing manager for Strmsgodset, Rune Marthinsen, highlighted how popular Odegaard was even two years ago.”I first noticed how talented he was when he made his [non-competitive] debut at age 13.”We had sponsors who wanted to sign him when he was 13 years old. I don’t think many people in Drammen had heard of him, but Diadora, Adidas, and Nike all wanted him.“Martin was something that no one in Norway had ever seen before.”According to Marthinsen, he made the transition from preseason friendly to top-flight league play without any problems.It was probably the fourth or fifth game for us that he faced up against a 37-year-old mountain of a man, and he made a mockery of him, scoring twice. It was a great game and moment for all of us.Odegaard aroused a level of attention from larger names that were unusual for young players from lesser-known organizations. We had 63 emails from overseas teams, including Bayern Munich, Dortmund, Liverpool, and everyone else, as far as I’m aware. This may have been when he was 14 or 15 years old.Nilsen continued by saying that despite being in the intense spotlight right now, adolescent Odegaard was unfazed.“The thing about all the interest was that it was Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Arsenal, some Italian teams – every top team in Europe. But the most impressive thing wasn’t only Martin’s technical skill, it was Martin’s and his family’s ability to stay grounded.Everybody wanted a piece of Martin: “He was on the cover of every paper here every day, the media was at their house knocking on the door.The key was that he maintained his composure and concentrated on improving as a player.Although he was always signed with the idea of developing, it took him 679 days after his arrival to make his debut for the Real Madrid senior team.While he was a player at the Santiago Bernabeu, he went on four different loan stints, but it was the last one that would resurrect his flagging career.Odegaard did finally sign a loan deal with Premier League powerhouse Arsenal in January 2021, where he performed admirably during his six-month trial period.So much so that Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, was desperate to get him back to the Emirates on a permanent basis. The Spaniard finally got his wish in August of last year.Odegaard joined permanently in 2016 and hasn’t looked back since. He is already among the finest in England, claims Nilsen.Martin is currently one of the finest midfielders in the Premier League, but it is hard to predict what would have happened if he had gone straight to Arsenal.Odegaard, who is still only 23 years old, has already encountered things that most people would find difficult to fit into a single career.He has dealt with the limelight that came with being the adolescent wunderkind, he has dispelled claims that he was a failure when things didn’t work out in Spain, and he is currently leading Arsenal’s push for the top four.Perhaps it has more to do with the amount of love he experiences in north London than it does with the exiled treatment he occasionally experienced in Madrid.