Pricy wonderkid, 16, battles to make Real reserve side

REAL Madrid’s £ 2.3m, 16- year- old wonderkid Martin Odegaard has been dropped from the club’s B team Castilla because results drastically improve when he is not on the pitch.

Odegaard, pictured left, picked Real Madrid over Liverpool and Manchester United at the start of the year but the record-breaking teenager is already experiencing how difficult it can be for young players in the Spanish capital. Real Madrid Castilla, managed by first-team coach in waiting Zinedine Zidane, were top of their regional third division when Odegaard arrived at the club in January, but after he made his debut the team’s form dipped dramatically and following a run of four straight defeats, they dropped to seventh place, four points off the lead. There have been suggestions that other B team players resented the fact that Odegaard was training with the first team three times a week and then starting Castilla games very much on a different wavelength to his teammates.

The Norway international might be benefiting from training with Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale but it was not helping him become a cohesive part of the Castilla side.

And they had the perfect chance to prove they were better off without him when he was called up by Norway coach, Per-Mathias Hogmo, for the recent European Championship Group H qualifier against Croatia.

They won the match played in his absence and despite the fact that he was back in Madrid and available at the weekend Zidane kept him out of the team and they won again.

Real Madrid are desperate to see their Castilla side promoted and Zidane must now decide if Odegaard’s presence is doing more harm than good.

The Norwegian’s future is also tied to whether or not promotion is achieved. He was never going to be asked to play another year of Spanish third division football so if Castilla fail to go up to the second division he will be loaned out next season.

No one at Real Madrid believes the club has made a huge mistake in signing Odegaard but it was a measure of how they will need to be patient with their precocious young talent when first-team coach Carlo Ancelotti decided against playing him in the Champions League against Schalke despite pressure to pick him.

With his path to first team involvement currently blocked and the B team choosing to chase promotion without him he might even be questioning his decision to turn down a clutch of Premier League clubs in favour of Real Madrid. – Daily Mail