Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard is aiming for a level of revenge this week when he takes on former club Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
The Norwegian joined Los Blancos from Strømsgodset as a teenager in January 2015 with the world at his feet for a reported fee of £3.42million.
He was signed for the first team but played the majority of his Real Madrid career for the second string, coached by Zinedine Zidane at the time.
Upon his arrival, Carlo Ancelotti, in the midst of his first spell in charge of the club declared Odegaard as having 'talent and personality'.
However, he would only make 11 first-team appearances for the Spanish giants and was often sent on loan, with Heerenveen, Vitesse and finally Real Sociedad taking the midfielder in.
In January 2021, the Gunners signed Odegaard on loan and saw enough in the midfielder to warrant signing him on a permanent basis that summer.
Arsenal signed Odegaard for an initial £30m and already the 26-year-old has proven to be brilliant value for money.
He now wears the captain's armband at the Emirates Stadium and will be a key player for the Gunners when they take on Real.
Despite his early praise for Odegaard, Ancelotti admitted he was not a fan of the signing due to the manner by which it came about.
Writing in his book Quiet Leadership, which was released in May 2016, the Italian explained: "When Florentino [Perez] buys a Norwegian footballer, you simply have to accept it.
"Furthermore, the president decided that he would play three games with the first team as a public relations [PR] 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." The insinuation from Ancelotti was that Odegaard was signed by Real to improve the club's standing in Norway and while the legendary head coach would leave the Spanish capital for the first time in the summer of 2015, this would explain why things did not work out for Arsenal's captain in Spain.
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