Carlo Ancelotti singles out £30million Arsenal World Cup star out for praise

Carlo Ancelotti is masterminding Brazil’s World Cup campaign (Picture: Getty)

Carlo Ancelotti admits one of the main threats to Brazil’s chances of winning the World Cup is represented by a player whose signing he once described as a ‘PR exercise’.

The legendary Italian manager is currently in charge of the Selecao and is masterminding their World Cup campaign.

Brazil reached the last 16 after topping their group, before requiring a last-minute goal from Gabriel Martinelli to oust Japan in the last round.

The Arsenal forward is set to be rewarded for his matchwinning exploits with a place in the starting XI this evening when he will take on his club colleague Martin Odegaard .

England's hero (Picture:Getty)

With the Gunners skipper at the heart of his side’s midfield, Martinelli knows only too well how much of a danger his teammate can be as does Ancelotti.

The 67-year-old when Odegaard signed for Real Madrid as a teenager but was unwilling to give a player with such limited experience a chance to shine in his star-studded team.

Indeed, he infamously blamed Florentino Perez for Odegaard’s failure at the Bernabeu after the club president moved heaven and earth to sign a player who was wanted at the time by all of European football’s heavyweight sides.

Martin Odegaard joined Real Madrid as a teenager (Picture: Getty)

‘When Florentino buys a Norwegian footballer, you simply have to accept it,’ he wrote in his autobiography Quiet Leadership.

‘Furthermore, the president decided that he would play three games with the first team as a public relations exercise.

‘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.’

More than a decade on and Odegaard has finally fulfilled his potential at Arsenal following a series of loan move and comes face-to-face again with a manager who deemed him surplus to requirements.

Martin Odegaard is at the beating heart of Norway’s team (Picture: Getty)

‘We signed [him] when he was 16,’ Ancelotti said in his pre-match press conference. ‘Real Madrid, [he] was a really talented player, talented kid, was 16.

‘I think he developed really well. It took time because he went in a lot of teams and now I think he found a really good situation in Arsenal.