Martin Odegaard has said that David Silva was one of his idols growing up.
The Arsenal captain named the Manchester City legend alongside several other icons of the game that he looked up to in an interview with beIN SPORTS Asia on their YouTube channel.
Mikel Arteta, who played against and coached David Silva at the Etihad Stadium recently hailed him as “extraordinary” and described him as “one of the best” players he has ever seen.
Martin Odegaard says David Silva was one of his idols growing up
Even Oleksandr Zinchenko singled the World Cup winner out as the best player he has ever played with in his career.
After the 37-year-old’s retirement, Rodri said that the veteran was one of one and claimed that the game would not see another player like him again.
As David Silva has his fair share of admirers, Martin Odegaard has said that he was one of them growing up.
“I don’t know, I had a lot [of idols] when I was younger, [Lionel] Messi was one, I was watching David Silva a lot, Ronaldinho, I had a lot so it’s hard to say”, he told beIN SPORTS Asia.
Gabriel Jesus replied, “David Silva. Top.”
Odegaard said, “Top, yeah. One of the best ever.”
The Arsenal midfielder should especially study David Silva this season
Considering Martin Odegaard seems to be playing in a deeper midfield role in his last two games, there is perhaps no better time for him to study how David Silva operated than at the moment.
In the previous campaign, the Norwegian was one of Arsenal’s main creators and goalscorers in the No.10 position.
But since Odegaard seems to have been tasked to control games for the Gunners, there are not many better midfielders who were better at this very skill than the Spanish icon.
David Silva was the embodiment of a metronome, who could dictate the tempo of any game and that too, against any midfield in world football.
Be it from a deeper position or even when played in a more advanced role, like during the ‘Centurions’ campaign, Silva was a puppet master in the middle of the park.
If Martin Odegaard can even reach half of the four-time Premier League winner’s level in that role, he would be doing Mikel Arteta a massive favour.
