Odegaard: FIFA gave me a ‘special connection’ with Arsenal

Robin Bairner

• 10 Feb 2023 10:10 GMT
• 4 min read

Arsenal star Martin Odegaard has revealed that the FIFA video games have had a role to play in his love affair with the club.

Odegaard arrived at the Emirates Stadium from Real Madrid in January 2021 initially on a loan deal. After a successful start to life at the club, the transfer was made permanent the following summer for €40 million.

Now with an Estimated Transfer Value of €55m, he has since developed into a key player for Mikel Arteta’s side, and his improved form has helped that Gunners establish a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table, with a game in hand over Manchester City to boot.

Odegaard, who has scored eight times and created six more in 19 Premier League games, the best run of his career to date, has explained why he has always felt an affiliation with the Gunners.

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Odegaard’s Arsenal saga: From special connection to reality

“I’ve always had this weird connection to Arsenal,” he told The Players’ Tribune.

“It started long before I signed. I don’t even really know how to explain it, except with one little story.

“I’ve never been that much into video games. I am of that generation that always played outside, but the one exception was FIFA.

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“I mostly played Career Mode. You know, where you get to be the manager? The club I always chose to manage was Arsenal. They were my FIFA team.

“Growing up in Norway, I watched a lot of Premier League and I just had this good feeling about Arsenal. I’d seen clips of Thierry Henry and the Invincibles.

“I knew the club had a history of developing playmakers like Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Mesut Ozil — really smart, technical players, who were good on the ball and played the difficult passes. My kind of players.

“As I got older, around the 2015 edition, I started actually appearing in FIFA.

“I didn’t look much like me at first. I think I was like a 67 overall, but I was actually in the game and it was a big deal.

“So, naturally, one of the first things I did when I was pretending to be Arsene Wenger on Career Mode was to buy myself. Me and Arsenal. It just seemed like a good match in my head.

“That special connection turned into a reality when I signed here two years ago. It was a decision that changed my life around. I come into training smiling every day.

“But my story is definitely not Career Mode. This has been a very different journey to how I imagined it on FIFA.

“In real life, you can’t just select where you want to go and everything will be perfect.”

Arsenal play Brentford on Saturday, with Odegaard set to take centre stage once more.