Real Madrid's Martin Odegaard Must Learn the Lessons of Failed Wonderkids

The protracted saga that has seen Norwegian wonderkid Martin Odegaard touted around Europe’s biggest clubs came to an end this week with his transfer to Real Madrid from Stromsgodset.

The pressure on the record-breaking teenager is immense, and there are many pitfalls to be negotiated if Odegaard is to succeed where other feted youngsters have failed.

The 16-year-old has certainly considered his options thoroughly, and there were no shortage of takers for this prodigious talent. Visits to Liverpool’s Melwood training complex, clandestine meetings with Bayern Munich and practice sessions with Real were undertaken.

Under the watchful eye of his father—former Stromsgodset legend Hans Erik Odegaard—the decision to opt for the Bernabeu was made.

The motivations for this choice are not hard to fathom.

The Odegaard family will be moved straight into a villa, and Hans Erik has a coaching role already lined up within Los Blancos’ academy set-up. The opportunity to work under the tutelage of former legends such as Zinedine Zidane and Fernando Hierro can only have acted as further bait.

The young man nicknamed the "Norwegian Lionel Messi" has already broken a number of records in his fledgling career.

These include being the youngest person to play in the Norwegian Premier League (at 15 years and 117 days), the youngest individual to score in Norway’s top division (at 15 years and 150 days), the youngest player to ever represent Norway (aged 15 years and 253 days) and the youngest male to play in a European Championship qualifier (15 years and 300 days).

The path which Odegaard must take to fulfil his undoubted potential is fraught with pitfalls. Second chances are not easily granted in the modern game, so the teenager should look at the failures and successes of others who have faced such intense hype, rather than having to learn from his own mistakes.

Michael Sohn/Associated Press/Associated Press

Ghanaian-born American Freddy Adu is a byword for unfulfilled potential. The attacker was the youngest-ever player to turn out in Major League Soccer when he played for DC United at the age of 14 years and 320 days.

Adu was described in many quarters as the next Pele and trained with a number of European clubs, including Manchester United. After a dream move to Benfica, the attacker’s career degenerated into a series of failed loan moves and transfers—Adu currently plays in the Serbian SuperLiga.

The key reason for this decline was that Freddy Adu simply peaked at an extremely young age and found it impossible to improve.

A more recent example is Wilfried Zaha. The Englishman came through the ranks at Crystal Palace and broke through to become a truly standout player for the Eagles. Zaha’s transfer to Manchester United for a fee of around £10 million appeared to be a shrewd piece of business by the Red Devils.

The forward found himself surplus to the requirements of then-manager David Moyes and has since been loaned to Cardiff City and currently back to Palace.

Hindsight is always the clearest place from which to view a situation, and it would be unfair to say that the 22-year-old should have stayed as the principal player at a smaller club. Besides, which youngster wouldn’t want to move to a club that nurtured the awesome talents of Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney so successfully?

Zaha was to some extent a victim of circumstance—if Sir Alex Ferguson had stayed as manager, the player may have been given the game time required to move to a higher level of success.

Martin Odegaard is still two or three years away from the point where he should be breaking into the first XI at the Bernabeu. The Scandinavian’s appetite for intense hard work (as reported below by BBC Sport) means he is unlikely to let his talent stagnate in the same manner as Freddy Adu:

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Odegaard's father has been a huge influence on his son's career. He estimates that Martin has trained for around 20 hours a week since the age of seven and recalls the moment he knew his son would be "quite good" at football. 'I was still playing and Martin must have been no more than eight,' he told CNN. 'I was out on the pitch running some intervals. When I was finished, I wanted to go home, but we couldn't before he had done 50 more shots.'

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A final warning to the teenager comes in the form of PSV Eindhoven’s Zakaria Bakkali. The Liege-born maestro is another player in Belgium’s seemingly endless production line of quality players. The 18-year-old’s star is on the wane, however.

The winger’s ego has outstripped his determination on the training pitch, and his refusal to sign a new contract means he has not turned out for the Dutch side this season—PSV say he will not appear for them again.

The situation is summed up perfectly in Jannick Lanckriet's article for World Soccer: 

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He will need to make some adjustments to his attitude both on and off the pitch, and most importantly he will need to get rid of the bad seeds in his entourage. Otherwise he might just become another hot prospect who didn’t make it.

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With all this caution, it is also important for Los Merengues' new signing to look at those players who have done things the right way—where better to start than Ballon d’or winner Cristiano Ronaldo?

The Portuguese superstar reached his current heights through incredible hard work, along with the ability to be constantly self-critical. Being able to analyse the weaknesses in one’s game is an excellent lesson the former Stromsgodset player can learn from his new team-mate.

Martin Odegaard has all the facets of a future Real idol. His diminutive stature and close ball control do remind any viewer of Lionel Messi, and his ability to bring colleagues into play displays a vision and intelligence beyond 16 years of age—moreover, the kid has an fantastic eye for goal: 

There is no doubt that Real Madrid is the best place for excellent potential to be translated to true class. Odegaard would be wise to remember the ghosts of those who have failed where he intends to succeed.