Martin Odegaard studied Leo Messi when he was young
The Norwegian sensation looked at Messi as someone to learn from
Martin Odegaard could have signed for Barcelona before joining Real Madrid, former Norwegian footballer and agent Kent Karlsen told Cadena SER.
The Madrid midfielder has been a sensation at Real Sociedad on loan this season.
It was at the end of 2014 that Barca invited Odegaard to look at the club's training facilities. "Barca invited us and we visited La Masia and all the facilities," said Karlsen. "We were talking to Zubizarreta and he invited us to watch Barca v Ajax on a very special night.
"Barca are a great club but Martin and his father looked at a lot of things to take a decision and in the end they visited other clubs and chose another."
The FIFA sanction also harmed their chances of getting Odegaard. "The player had to stay another year in Norway because Barcelona couldn't sign players in 2015 and they weren't sure about that," added Karlsen.
"Martin studied Messi when he was young, he tried to imitate his movements, passes and vision. Messi is the best player in the world and there's nobody on planet Earth like him, but when you see Odegaard play you can see things from that learning process and study that he did when he was little."
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