French Ligue 1 side Rennes are expected to announce the signing of Real Madrid wonderkid Martin Odegaard in the next 48 hours. The 17-year-old is expected to move to the French side on a loan deal with no option to buy.
Zinedine Zidane and co. had ben searching throughout the continent to find a suitable place for Odegaard to move out on loan so that he might get some much-needed playing time. The Norwegian has been linked with a number of clubs including the top dogs in Germany and England. However, now it seems that Odegaard will call France his home for the next season.
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Rennes are expected to give the hierarchy at the Bernabeu a guarantee regarding the number of appearances that he will be allotted in return for Real Madrid paying the majority of the teenager’s £1.2million annual salary.
“My advice to him is that he goes to a club where he is going to play more,” said Zidane last week. “He has had a good pre-season with us and we are happy with him but it is difficult for him to get minutes in the first team here.”
Odegaard, who moved to Madrid 18 months back when Los Blancos splashed out £2.3 million for him, remains one of the most high-profile teenage signings in football ever. The Norwegian made an appearance in Times magazine last year, making it to the top 30 list of the 30 most influential teenagers in the world. His father Hans Erik Odegaard, who took a coaching job at the club when his son moved to Spain, has been desperate for his son's on-the-field progress to start matching his off-the-field profile.
However, he hasn’t found life at Madrid all plain sailing. The Norwegian failed to impress erstwhile manager Carlo Ancelotti, who deemed the signing a ‘PR exercise’. And then under Rafa Benitez, he saw his stars dwindle further. The Spaniard tactician promoted other academy products like Borja Mayoral and Marcos Llorente ahead of Odegaard.
However, after a not so impressive loan spell at Castilla, he made his way to the first team was given the first run out for Real Madrid in May last year when he made an appearance in Real Madrid's 7-3 win over Getafe.
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Real Madrid would have ideally have liked to send the teenager to Castilla again. However, with Castilla failing to win promotion from the Spanish third division, they were forced to look for a more challenging environment for the 17-year-old.
Zinedine Zidane is familiar with the Ligue 1, having started his playing career there. The Ral Madrid legend in fact also did his UEFA Pro License in France back in 2014 and is said to be happy with the prospect of Odegaard joining the French league. He hopes that the physicality of the play in France.
There is a fair way to go for most to judge whether the Norwegian will live up to his massive potential. However, now, the move to Rennes could solve his dilemma.
