Unfortunately, the list of foreign players who have passed through Real without pain or glory is very extensive. For many years, the roster of footballers hired to make a difference by the txuri urdin club was part of a gallery of horrors that realistic fans looked at with a feeling of shame and shame. Peyremans, Arif, Collet, Asper, Necati, Viáfara, Mariga or Pürk are just some of the members of a soccer club whose common link is that they only played one season in the Real and, at the end of it, pack their bags without leaving a minimum detail to remember.
This extensive list of mistakes puts much more value on the role that Martin Odegaard has played in the Real. Exponentially amplifies your legacy. The Norwegian also has in common with all those fiascos that he will only play -for now- one season as txuri urdin but the already Real Madrid player will be remembered as one of the great foreigners in the club's history, achievement of which only a few foreigners they can boast.
The most similar case to the one that Odegaard has played in the Real could be represented 30 years ago by the sadly deceased Dalian Atkinson. With the doors just opened to foreigners in the modern era of the club with the arrival of John Aldridge in 1989, the signing of the attacker of the English color the following year was a real 'boom' in the Real and in the League. Few footballers have generated as much impact as ‘txipiron’ in a single campaign. His 12 goals in 32 official matches, his displays against great rivals and on big stages such as the Camp Nou, the Bernabéu or Mestalla and, above all, that speed and power that made him uncontrollable for defenses remain unchanged in the memory of the highlights that saw him play.
Cases like Atkinson's are counted on the fingers of one hand and many of those who can boast of having penetrated the Real fans in such a short time did so in circumstances of great urgency for the club. Footballers such as Julio César or Mark González, for example, arrived in the winter markets of 2001 and 2006 respectively, with Real fighting to avoid relegation and their great benefits contributed to not relegation. Something that Savio could not avoid in 2007 despite the fact that his game in Anoeta dazzled in just five months. Already in the Second Division, Abreu exercised a similar kind of spell on 09/08 and Carlos Bueno will also be remembered forever. Despite playing only one year at Real, he was a decisive piece for promotion in 2010.
Unfortunately, the Real has hired soccer players from abroad who, like Odegaard, have left the parish speechless in just 12 months. There are many more Dramé, Songo’o, Fabio Felicio, Mladenovic, Germán Herrera or Delibasic than the names that left their mark. That's why Odegaard is already missed.