In January 2015, a 16-year-old Norwegian boy named Martin Odegaard left his homeland to join Real Madrid.
The fee was reported by Spanish media to be around €3m (£2.3m), and the transfer itself received widespread and intense attention, with The Guardian reporting that Los Blancos had warded off interest from the likes of Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United for his signature.
Odegaard had that ineffably beautiful footballing quality from the start, scoring five goals and providing seven assists in his breakout 2013/14 season with Stromsgodset IF in Norway, preceding the move to La Liga, and earning praise for a style not too dissimilar to that of one Lionel Messi.
Odegaard would only play 490 minutes of football for Real over the duration of his career at the prestigious outfit, offered out on loan to three different clubs before earning a short-term move to Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, where a promising stint over the second phase of the 2020/21 campaign, scoring one goal and two assists from nine Premier League starts, resulted in the Gunners' £30m acquisition of one of the modern games most prominent wonder-kids.
How much is Odegaard worth now?
The 47-cap phenom has swiftly asserted himself as one of the most devastating and dynamic orchestrators of play in Europe at the Emirates, making steady progress to his game year upon year and now hailed as "world-class" and a "leader" by the likes of journalist Declan Carr.
Odegaard has always been touted to be "one of the best" – in the words of Arteta – and has now blossomed into one of the brightest stars in Europe, with CIES Football Observatory valuing him at £88m, which is almost £60m more than the fee Arsenal parted with to acquire his signature on a permanent deal less than two years ago.
Such a meteoric rise is a testament to the job Arteta is plying in north London, taking Arsenal from the depths below the top four – indeed the outfit have failed to qualify for the Champions League for six successive seasons – and now topping the Premier League table by eight points after 28 matches.
It is no coincidence that Odegaard's arrival mirrors the ascension, with the £115k-per-week maestro taking the captaincy role in the summer and utilising his superlative conducting abilities to surge into title contention, not too shabby from a technical standpoint either with ten goals and seven assists chalked from 27 outings in the top-flight this term, earning a remarkable Sofascore rating of 7.40.
His stellar scoring is largely down to his all-encompassing and high-octane approach, unleashing an efficient 2.3 shots and 2.5 key passes per outing, a veritable engine to charge his team's pursuit of silver-laden success, even remarked to bear a semblance to "watching Bergkamp" according to journalist Hush Kerai.
The maverick has truly been groundbreaking in his efforts for Arsenal and instilling life and confidence into the fold, exuding an aura that comes around sparingly for most clubs and the centrepiece behind Arsenal's stellar transitional play, ranking among the top 1% of midfielders across Europe's top five leagues for shot-creating actions, the top 9% for progressive passes and the top 12% for progressive carries, as per FBref.
Dubbed a "wizard" by footballer Babayele Sodade for his brilliance in conjuring up success in north London, technical director Edu's £30m swipe for one-time wonder-kid Odegaard looks to be one of the steals of the century; valued at £88m, the club would benefit lucratively if they were to cash in on their prized asset, but the more auspicious route to success surely lies with Odegaard at the beating heart of the project, raining silverware on the Emirates and cementing his name in Arsenal folklore.