Arsenal star Martin Ødegaard has been lauded by former coaches Stijn Schaars and Jurgen Streppel, who have praised the Norwegian’s work ethic.
The pair have been speaking about the Arsenal midfielder to ELF Voetbal as he continues to shine in the Premier League this season.
Ødegaard has been shining at the Emirates since his arrival on loan from Real Madrid in the January transfer window in 2021.
That loan move proved to be a success and Arsenal elected to pay €35m for him the following summer, a figure which has proven to be a bargain ever since.
That’s because the 24-year-old has shown rapid development under Mikel Arteta’s leadership, establishing himself as a key player with a series of impressive performances.
This season alone he has managed ten goals and seven assists in 35 games for the club, already bettering the seven goals and five assists he managed in 40 games last year.
Part of that improvement has been down to Arteta’s work with him, which Ødegaard himself has praised, but his former coaches say the midfielder’s work ethic is also key.
“He then started training at altitude like cyclists do. He did that with a personal trainer who also coached Sergio Ramos. Out of a fortnight’s holiday, he was training for 10 days,” explained Schaars.
“Therein lies the crux of the story. Reaching the absolute top is really not in those two hours of training a day that everyone gets. It is about what your plan is to become the best and how you work on that throughout the day.
“When I saw Martin a year later at Vitesse, he had much more impact because he had made such a huge step forward physically. With the right mindset and the potential on the pitch, performance comes naturally.”
“Martin is a boy who is good in the world,” added Streppel.
“You shouldn’t be mistaken about the impact of getting a contract like that (at Real Madrid) at a very young age.
“If you don’t have the intrinsic motivation of a pure enthusiast then, you automatically drop out. Basically, he would never have had to work from the age of 18, you see?
“You can start investing in real estate or other things. Then the enthusiasm you have inside determines whether you are going to make it to the top or not.”
