Football’s very own Wikileaks, Football Leaks, has recently released documents that reveal Martin Odegaard’s contract details with Real Madrid. Football Leaks and El Mundo, a Spanish media giant leading the series of leaks revealed a spate of suspected tax irregularities among the biggest names of football including Cristiano Ronaldo, Jose Mourinho and now, the Norwegian wonder kid Odegaard.
The sum total of the leaks includes the exact value of the midfielder’s contract with the Spanish club which had been undisclosed at the time of his signing in 2015. According to El Mundo’s report Odegaard’s father, Hans Eric Odegaard had signed a deal worth €10.5 million for a period of three years.
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“Through an agreement signed on 22 January 2015 between Madrid and the player’s father, Hans Erik Odegaard, the club contracted the player until 30 June 2018 for a total of €10.5m”.
Further clauses from Odegaard’s contract has also been brought to light including the assurance that he would be housed in the same hotel, Valdebedas as the first team. He was also promised a €50,000 bonus for every game that he played with the first team although it has hardly made a difference since the Norwegian teenager has played just twice with the senior team – once against Getafe under Carlo Ancelotti and then a few weeks back against Cultural in the Copa del Rey.
The document also revealed that Odegaard’s father had refused to establish a company in a tax haven in order to hide his son’s income from his image rights. At that time, the law firm that had offered to manage the Norwegian’s finances had estimated his image rights to be worth €2 million per annum.
However, according to an email released by El Mundo, Hans Eric had refused their offer stating the unethical nature of tax evasion.
"He will make a lot of money anyway; it's also a moral issue about how much effort you should make in trying to save yourself some tax money when other people struggle more to pay for theirs."
Although that wasn’t the only thing holding the father back. In an email that he sent the law firm earlier, he wrote, "It's risky. He should earn a lot more to make it profitable."
Real Madrid’s young player isn’t the only one implicated in these leaks. Both Ronaldo and Mourinho have been accused of hiding parts of their income in offshore accounts to evade heavy taxation. Ronaldo’s Madrid teammate Fabio Coentrao has also been similarly accused as has Rademel Falcao from his time at Atletico Madrid.
