Norwegian starlet Martin Odegaard has completed a move away from Real Madrid, but will not be joining a Premier League club as was reported in August.
The 18-year-old playmaker will instead join Dutch Eredivisie Heerenveen until the end of the season.
Heerenveen currently occupy fourth spot in the Dutch top flight. They are, however, perhaps better known for providing the Premier League with Afonso Alves, who scored 48 goals in 48 games for De Superfriezen before joining Middlesbrough, where he scored roughly four.
Odegaard, for his part, was touted as one of the hottest talents in European football when he made his senior debut for Strømsgodset at the age of just 15 - this back in 2014. After 23 first team appearances and five goals, he joined Real Madrid the following season.
Despite the furore which surrounded his arrival, and training consistently with the first team, Odegaard has struggled to make a breakthrough. He was initially bedded into Madrid's second team by Zinedine Zidane, but only made his first team debut as recently as November, during a 6-1 victory over lowly Cultural Leonesa.
Despite being linked to a number of Premier League clubs in the summer, including West Ham and Liverpool, Odegaard remained at Madrid, and will now join Heerenveen until next summer. Madrid may even extend his deal in order to find Odegaard more first team football.
He has scored six goals in 59 appearances for Real Madrid B across three seasons, and has earned nine caps for Norway. Not bad for a player who only turned 18 last month, but you'd still feel the next six month in the Netherlands will prove crucial to his career at Madrid.
