I recognise something deeply Scandinavian about Ødegaard. Even though he’s so young he’s emanating old school Scandi. Across Scandinavia there’s a cultural code, in Sweden it’s called Jantelagen, in Norway and Denmark, Janteloven. It can mean exhibiting a quietness, a dignity, a humility, a communal integrative approach, keeping your head down, working hard. It’s about respecting others for their existence rather than for their utility. It’s about collective accomplishments and collective well-being. And of course, it’s slowly being whittled away.
Naturally, there are ways of (mis)interpreting this cultural quirk, this resistance to trumpeting oneself, especially in the current climate where concepts of collective well-being are so often dismissed with a fishy and suspicious glance. But let’s not forget that Football is a team game and Ødegaard is unmistakably Janteloven in his style, both on and off the pitch.
Perhaps counter-intuitively to those who don’t experience this cultural mode, that’s why he is the perfect Captain. It’s why Ødegaard can stand in the huddle and listen to Xhaka’s fiery-eyed sermons without the need to platform himself. It’s why Ødegaard has his arm around a team-mate’s shoulders at the moment of error or foolishness. It’s why Ødegaard motors away in the centre like Arsenal’s Swiss watch mechanism with a boundless determination to drive the team forward, always the team, the team.
It’s also why, in Arteta’s phrase, “the others listen to him when he speaks”. Because they know Ødegaard is speaking on behalf of the collective and not himself. Ødegaard is the world’s youngest village elder, he is a voice by the longhouse fire that speaks for all. He is a man to be trusted. Mikel Arteta, to his enormous credit, understood this immediately and appointed this young villager to the head of the council. Arsenal has players with more miles in their legs and more games under their belts. Arsenal has players with louder voices, warrior voices, manic voices, passionate voices, fist-wavers and sword bearers, but they all look across the room at Ødegaard’s contemplative blue eyes and wait for the softly spoken word of wisdom that encapsulates all their needs.
Ødegaard’s journey to trusted elder has been as unlikely as it’s been pragmatic. He’s seemingly been engaged in a never ending footballing thought experiment. Even during his transformation on the world stage from a fifteen year old Norway national player, to a twenty-three year Arsenal Captain, as his cherubic features seemingly remain unchanged, his powers only increase and intensify, as if he’s both fleeting and eternal at the same time.
The world’s youngest village elder spent thousands of hours on Norwegian gravel, grass and plastic pitches before being smuggled away to the football laboratories of Real Madrid where he bounced between Spanish Tiki-Taka and Dutch Total Football. He matured in the hothouse of European excellence, surrounded by superb players, nurturing his ever growing spectrum of skills, honing his abilities, until he finally found his natural habitat at the Emirates.
This ongoing Ødegaardian footballing thought experiment equipped him to confront impossible situations and concoct instantaneous solutions. He plays with the unbelievable ability to flip from a player engaged in a microscopic battle of minuscule advantages, nutmegging and drag-backing in the tiniest of vacuums left by opponents, to a player who can launch massive haymaker passes across the entire macrocosm of the pitch, directly onto a team mate’s stride, without even seeming to look up.
But don’t allow Ødegaard’s scholarly approach lull you into a false sense of his delicacy. His handling of the ball may reveal a whole new dimension of athletic subtlety where thinking and feeling morph into one beautiful dance, he may perform his role calmly and coolly like a man possessed by an ancient line of footballing spirits, but behind his icy intellect he shares a certain not-to-be-messed-with quality with another cerebral yet steely Arsenal legend. Both Ødegaard and Dennis “The Iceman” Bergkamp have that instantly recognisable and intimidating quality, that heady cocktail of Tiki-Taka skill and Total Football mentality that others both covet and fear.
With Ødegaard as captain, Arteta’s Arsenal are street smart for sure, with the emphasis on the smart. Back in the day Bergkamp was the magician, magicking new geometric shapes in real time, but his sharpest angles were his elbows, the dude was tough. He bamboozled the opposition by deftly devising new un-imaginables right in front of them like an eccentric footballing genius, but God help anyone who thought they’d bring The Iceman down a peg or two. Those glacial elbows and a twist of the hips restored the hierarchy pretty quick.
And Ødegaard is the same. He’s more than equipped to appear out of nowhere like a Norwegian Sea Eagle and tumble any pesky crow out of his airspace when needed, boom boom and down they go. He’s inclined to clip an ankle or snag a shoulder or seize a shirt when the village demands a sacrifice. That’s what this brilliant Captain is like. Full of calm intelligence whilst playing beautifully, but also tough and flinty and shrewd. This is beauty balanced by practicality. This isn’t your Diego Costa style snarling and thuggery, this is Bergkamp style artistry and cunning.
Bergkamp and Ødegaard also share a line of footballing DNA. Zealous, concentrated, determined yet in love with the subtle virtuosity of the game, combining a spectacular blend of workmanship and artistry, like the footballing equivalent of a Da Vinci masterpiece. Both revel in whatever otherworldly move they’ve pulled off, but rather than expect applause, they manifest their accomplishments with a zen-like meditation, internalising the move for future reference, forever expanding their repertoire of endless qualities for future victories.
It’s a sign of Ødegaard’s stratospheric skills that when he plays like a human it feels like he’s having a breakdown. Expectations for him to bedazzle are permanently redlining. A misplaced pass somehow more shocking than an eye-of-the-needle threaded through ball. But it’s a sign of his village elder maturity and Bergkampian DNA that errors are taken in his stride as he calmly gets on with the next move, his ego neatly packed away, his intense football mind immediately whirring away on full alert.
Arteta and Edu have an eye. Together they’ve detected some astonishing gems washed up and buried in the sands of unfulfilled potential. Even their most experienced signings, Jesus and Zinchenko, feel as if, with Arteta’s help, they’ve clambered from their half-discarded dunes and re-shone like crazy diamonds. But Arteta and Edu plucked Ødegaard from open sight for anyone to see, once a coveted jewel, lost somewhat in the hectic clamour for the latest shiny thing, sitting there on the surface, patiently waiting for a true connoisseur to re-recognise his genuine value. And since being placed in the chair of responsibility oh how he has shone.
It’s an enormous pleasure watching the resurrection of Arsenal under the tutelage of a young manager, carefully tending his young players. But for me, one of the most satisfying pleasures is watching the all-embracing captaincy of a young man, who with the quietness, dignity and humility of a true born leader is taking the Arsenal Clan into the future..
I believe in the collective spirit. I’ll believe in supporting the wellbeing of everyone, not just a selected few. So for Arsenal to have a true Janteloven hero as captain brings a tear of joy to my eye.
Brilliant player. Brilliant captain. Brilliant Team!
This excellent guest post is by Jonathon Foster, who as just started his own website to amuse lovers of Arsenal and the written word….
You can read more by Jonathon on Arsenal Wonderland…
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I remember some saying he’s nothing special, he’s arguably our best player so far this season. The way he’s plays makes everyone around him look good, I pray he doesn’t get injured because we don’t have any replacement for him.
He’s really special. He’s always doing the little things n intelligently exploiting spaces n know when to take up good spaces when needed. But he need others to work together to be really special.
That’s why some great players should come Arsenal for a new life especially under MA. Dun always stay or goes to those so called Branded Clubs. Too many players there and once u dun perform well u r on the bench forever not playing n honing their skills.
Alot of our special players made the right decisions and we are all gona get rewarded very soon and make history.
Nicely written and enjoyable. Not written to attract reaction or comments. Like our pple on here
He said…… leaving a comment!
I really loved this article, althought I suspect that you’ve misunderstood Janteloven.
These are the ten rules of the law:
1. You’re not to think you are anything special.
2. You’re not to think you are as good as we are.
3. You’re not to think you are smarter than we are.
4. You’re not to imagine yourself better than we are.
5. You’re not to think you know more than we do.
6. You’re not to think you are more important than we are.
7. You’re not to think you are good at anything.
8. You’re not to laugh at us.
9. You’re not to think anyone cares about you.
10. You’re not to think you can teach us anything.
The law says something about mankinds eager to hold other people down in a belief that it is for the greater good.
In my view Martin Ødegaard does exact the opposite. He – and Mikel Arteta – brings the best out of both himself and his team mates by building them up, and letting them expose their best qualities as long as it doesn’t degrade the team performance.
If Ødegaard was to follow the Jante law (written by author Axel Sandemose in 1933), he wouldn’t have let Xhaka be as verbal as he is, since that could have been seen as an attack on Ødegaard as a leader. In stead Ødegaard has enough self esteem to have no need to hold Xhaka “in place”.
And that’s as I said, in my understanding of the Jantelov, just the opposite of the law.
Funny.
Being Danish I can say your understanding of Janteloven is spot on how it is understood and used in Denmark 😉
I can see you are probably Norwegian so:
Gratulerer Norge med at I har to af de bedste spillere i verden!
Thanks, AndersS.
You’re right, I’m Norwegian, and there’s been more about Arsenal in the Norwegian press the last couple of years than the ten years before that combined.
Not to mention all the articles about Haaland. Still we’re a few good players short of getting a really good national side.
Yep and that’s why I think internatinal football is overrated, you can see a country with 3-4 players who are among the best n the world in their position and the rest are a bit rubbish, so they never win anything.
When I hear commentators calling England “the Three Lions” I think… “Yeah, 3 lions and 8 donkeys”.
Great comment Roy and I’m glad you enjoyed the article. It’s a pretty common interpretation of “Jantelagen” here in Sweden too I’d say (although I’m guessing from your spelling that you’re from Norge?).
I reckon all nations have (increasingly developed for cultural/political reasons) a sort of self-critical tendency to over-promote the individual at the expense of the collective, and certainly the book from which the term comes (”En flykting korsar sitt spår” that you mentioned) deals in themes about the repression of the individual. So I agree with you in many ways.
It’s just that I also think that a more gracious or generous interpretation recognises that there is a Scandi tendency to behave within a more collective frame which is actually wonderful and praiseworthy, and I think Ødegaard personifies this beautifully.
But you’re right, I am being generous with that bit for sure.
Anyway, having said all that all I really want to say is COYG 😉
Hi RES, I’m from the caribbean, so I’m not familiar with these 10 rules concept, but I’ll definitely borrow it and apply my own spin on it for my own personal enlightenment, To me it speaks of the We, as a collective, being greater than the You…..or the I for that matter. United we stand, divided we fall, and the “You”, or the “I” cannot be greater, stronger, smarter, better or, simply, contain more virtues than the “We” as a collective. Nevertheless, thank you for it’s real interpretation.
Good interpretation Daniel, I think, I understand it better now
The smoothness with which he turns, the vision, the positioning, the passing range.. Not sure why Real would sell such a player.
The summer we signed him permanently so many people on here were getting hysterical complaining about what a waste of money.
It was “Get Buendia, but Buendia, oh Buendia, but but… Why are we going for overrated Odegaard when we could sign Aouar etc”.
Last summer we had the “But but Bissouma, oh my goodness Bissouma, Arteta and Edu are a joke, they keept Xhaka but pass on Bissouma, oh no Bissouma”.
And now if we don’t get Caicedo and Rice we will hyperventilate about that for some time.
Nice comment @Goonster, you beat me to it…. Just like many fans are complaining about the signing of Jorginho, he is definitely not my favorite of all the players linked to us but he is now an Arsenal player, we all need to support our boys.
I was one of the fans
That wanted Arteta out of Arsenal but look where we are right now, I trust him now, i trust his decisions.
This here! Can not be expressed any better!
Since he joined us as a loaner, he’s been pressing the oppositions like a horse. His work rate is simply unbelievable and he’s been showing his world-class vision this season
My only criticisms are his pace and his weakness in duels, but most creative midfielders are like that. I think he can press like a madman until three or four years later, then someone else has to do that taxing job
Reading the headline I thought he had passed away, sorry, as I recently read the eulogy for my late dad.
GB, A eulogy, though often read out at funerals, is not only used about deaths. It has a wider meaning too.
It means to strongly praise someone or something, either in spoken or printed dialogue.
I do know that Jon but it’s what immediately came to mind due to my recent loss.
Lovely piece, but what I love most about it is the respect shown to Dennis Bergkamp, my outright favorite Arsenal player. Fans rave a lot about T. Henry and P. Vieira, and rightly so, but not near enough about db10, and Odegaard has the potential, at the end of his Arsenal career to knock him off my mantlepiece…… so on to you OdeGod sir.
Wow
Firstly a great read
Secondly I thought you was going to end with I have proposed to MO
On a serious note
I was very sceptical about MO being named as our captain at the start but he has shown that he is every bit capable of leading us from the front
I even groan when I don’t see him Starting. He offers so much more then just being another name on the team sheet.
I applaud MA for having the foresight to name him as captain of our unstopable juggernaut
The thing I love about this team and set up to date is that the team is still young, still learning, hungry for success and on a journey.
If we can keep the core together then I look forward to a lot of memorable moments in the future
Avery beautiful piece on the iceman but let those hawks take care odegardsurehas some bite in those leg and hand musckes of his Nothing more to add yousaid it all in a beautiful prose Roy thank you. You just made my evening beautiful.
Alan, I wasn’t sceptical about Martin Odegaard being named Arsenal captain, because he was already captain of the Norwegian National Team.
In addition, previously Arsenal had Aubameyang as captain, a player with negligible leadership ability, in my opinion.
You nearly gave me a heart attack!
A eulogy is a speech about someone after they’ve died, usually at a funeral.
When I saw the headline I thought MO had died – don’t do that!
Exactly mate, me too!
IDKWIC. A EULOGY IS NOT JUST A SPEECH AT A FUNERAL, BUT CAN ALSO BE A STRONGLY WORDED STATEMENT OF PRAISE, EITHER IN PRINT OR USED VERBALLY.
OK JON, WE GET IT , BUT NO NEED TO SHOUT !!
You don’t need to SHOUT down to us as we know what it means but mainly a eulogy is…… oh forget it, you’re just rude !
I’m not sure which dictionary you’re reading Jon (there are some truly abysmal online dictionary resources around) but that’s not my understanding – and it certainly isn’t used that way in day to day life…
When you read about a eulogy you expect it to mean someone’s a goner. In this case, that a Gooner’s a goner.
Let’s simply agree that the word “tribute” would have been clearer.
👍 perhaps his grasp of language is not as good as he makes out.
It’s really funny GB,,, I’m starting to think that Jon Fox may have been a parrot in his previous life. He loves to repeat himself all the time. I’d love a dollar for every time he reminds us that he’s a “realist”,,, My God I would be wealthy
America had magic Johnson, we have MAGIC ODEGAARD!!!!!!
Edzico, I’d rather have Martin “the Legend” Odegaard, like Larry Bird, a player who was never beaten, never gave up and you would choose for the clutch play, if your life depended on it.😊
The idea of a good team is that it is greater than the sum of its individual players. Martin Odegaard is currently leading by example and tying the components of the Arsenal team together.
Martin Odegaard was denigrated and under appreciated, as a teenager when he was unable to break into a Real Madrid midfield, which was arguably one of the strongest that club has ever fielded.
He is older, wiser and more experienced now, due to not sitting on the bench, but pursuing loan spells in the Netherlands and Spain, where he got more playing time, prior to a loan move to Arsenal.
As for Dennis Bergkamp, the player Ian Wright has declared the best player Arsenal has bought, or ever likely to buy, his toughness is demonstrated by the following story. When Bergkamp arrived at training early on in his Arsenal career, some members of the then best back four in Europe, decided to test him out with some rugged tackling. He proceeded to pick himself up, not complain and reciprocate by handing similar treatment in return. This ended “the test.” Not only his toughness, but his skill level, which was honed practicing longer and harder than everyone else. Odegaad has demonstrated, that like Bergkamp he is an unselfish team player, celebrating an assist as strongly as a personal goal scored. My criticism of Martin Odegaard is that I wish he would be more selfish in the positions he takes up and go for goal himself, rather than look to pass.
One hopes that Martin Odegaard is cut from the same cloth and can impact this Arsenal team in the same manner as Dennis Bergkamp.
This is a beautiful article about my captain. He is definitely like my favorite player Bergkamp.
Genius of Mikel Arteta to make him captain – one of the best decisions he has made since becoming gaffer.