Martin Odegaard will not play next season at Rennes, in the Ligue One. Real Madrid and the French side agreed a transfer deal for the Norwegian winger, including a season on loan at Rennes. However, the French side has confirmed that the deal cannot be made because of the FIFA rules.
Mikael Silvestre, close to the Rennes board, confirmed the news to the French radio station RMC: “Martin Odegaard will not come this summer for an age problem. He is still under 18 and he’ll turn 18 in December. Real Madrid don’t want to take any risks, they’re still under threat from FIFA, and they are still waiting for an answer from the Appealing Court. The player will stay at Real Madrid. He could go on loan to any other Spanish club, but he will not come to Rennes”, Silvestre told the French station.
The deal was already done and reported by all the media. Although there were a lot of German clubs interested in Odegaard -especially Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg- the player, after listening Zidane’s advice, decided to sign for Rennes. Liverpool was also reported to be interested in the young winger.
Now, Real Madrid have to look for a new club in Spain. Los Blancos don’t want Odegaard to spend another year at Castilla -the second Real Madrid team- and he doesn’t have any space at the moment in Zidane’s squad. Therefore, it urges to find him a new club within La Liga.
Odegaard played 45 games with Castilla and scored two goals in one season and a half. The Norwegian arrived to Madrid in the winter transfer window in 2015. Real Madrid won the battle to many other major European teams who also wanted to sign the winger. However, in his years at Castilla, he failed to help the team to get promoted to the second division of the Spanish football.
