Real Madrid transfer news: Carlo Ancelotti labels Martin Odegaard signing a 'public relations exercise'

Odegaard joined Real Madrid last January at the age of 16 but there are already doubts over his future at the club

Martin Odegaard has made just two senior appearances for Real Madrid (Getty)

New Bayern Munich head coach Carlo Ancelotti has hit out at Real Madrid’s decision to sign 16-year-old Martin Odegaard last year and labelled the signing as a “public relations exercise”.

Odegaard, now 17 years old, joined Real from Norwegian side Stromsgodset in January 2015 when Ancelotti was manager at the Santiago Bernabeu. Having been courted by a number of teams across Europe after becoming the youngest player to play in a European Championship qualifier when he made his Norway debut at 15, Odegaard agreed a deal to join Spanish side Real and was handed two senior call ups to Ancelotti’s side that season.

However, Ancelotti was sacked at the end of the campaign and Odegaard returned to the Real Madrid Castilla team, although he continues to train with the first team squad.

Now with Bayern as Pep Guardiola’s replacement, Ancelotti has lifted the lid on the move for Odegaard, and revealed that it was never a move he wanted or asked for, but one that was thrust upon him by the club’s president Florentino Perez.

“When Florentino buys a Norwegian footballer, you simply have to accept it,” Ancelotti writes in his latest book, Quiet Leadership. “Furthermore, the president decided that he would play three games with the first team as a public relations exercise.”

Ancelotti added: “He could be the best player in the world, but I don't care because he was not a player who I asked for. That signing was to do with PR”.

Ancelotti’s comments are vastly different to what he said at the time of Odegaard’s signing, when he tipped the highly-rated teenager to grow into “an important player for Real Madrid”, which with time on his side he may well still do.

“We are all convinced that he is going to become an important player for Real Madrid,” Ancelotti said in January 2015. “We are looking to the future and I think he has quality and intelligence.”