Behind the scenes revealed, how the Arsenal star turned down Pep Guardiola to join Bayern nine years ago even though he had done some training – Telegraph

In 2015, Martin Odegaard took the football world by storm with his talent and Real Madrid signed him at just 16 years old.

The Norwegian midfielder had a choice between Madrid and Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich, eventually deciding to move to the Spanish capital.

A series of loan spells followed with varying degrees of success and it wasn’t until years later that Odegaard found his footing after signing for Arsenal, becoming the London side’s leader and captain at the same time.

Michael Reschke, a former Bayern scout, believes the midfielder would not have had to wait so long if he had signed for the Bundesliga giants and played under Guardiola.

Reschke told The Athletic that Odegaard had also trained at Bayern, but in the end he decided to move to Real Madrid.

“At the age of 16, Odegaard trained with Pep, who was completely impressed after the first training session. I went into the dressing room and Pep was talking about how intelligent he was and how he was going to improve.”

“Odegaard was the type of player that Pep wanted. He was completely convinced. We were both very sure that we wanted to sign him, but he had the decision between Real Madrid and Bayern.”

“I had a gift in my professional life, working with Pep for two years. I saw him work with players like Kingsley Coman and if you’re a young and talented player.”

“One thing is for sure, Guardiola will make you a better player, the best player you can be. He is out of this world as a coach. “I’m sure that if Martin had worked with Pep, he would have taken a a few steps earlier,” declared Reschke. /Telegraph/