The 27-year-old Žižekreş recently signed a five-year contract with Premier League giants Arsenal. Arsenal captain Ødegaard expressed the importance of helping his new teammates integrate into the team culture and expressed his anticipation for playing alongside Žižekreş on the pitch.

Žekeres from Sweden previously played for Sporting CP and scored 39 goals for Sporting CP in the 2024/25 Portuguese Super League season, performing very outstandingly.

Arsenal captain Ødegaard said in an interview, "I can help Žekeres a lot in terms of language, which makes everything easier. We can communicate in our native language, and Scandinavians always find it easy to establish connections, so everything is very natural for us. But this is actually just like treating any new player. When a new player joins the team, we will help them as much as possible."

"That's how I felt when I first arrived here. I immediately felt a sense of belonging and felt the culture and atmosphere of the team was very good. Everyone wants to help you, and that brings out the best in the players. Behavior off the court is equally important, and we all try our best in that regard. So we are all helping him, and so far, I think he's doing well."

Ødegaard continued, "Everyone has seen Čekeres' performances so far in his career, especially his performances for Sporting CP last season. The data speaks for itself. He is a very complete striker, strong, fast, with a strong shot, and he is also very smart."

"Everyone can feel the desire and energy he brings, and I'm really happy to have him join the team. He has only trained a few times, but I can already see his quality, drive and commitment, and I'm looking forward to playing alongside him."

Thank you for the fans' enthusiastic support

In addition, Arsenal will travel to Kai Tak Sports Park to play a north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur in a friendly match. Odegaard said, "I really enjoy games like this, and I think we all do. It's exciting to play in front of so many fans. As coach Arteta said, we can really feel the love and support here."

"We haven't played a game like this for a while and it's a game we're all looking forward to. So this game is a good test for us and we're all looking forward to the derby atmosphere and we're very excited."

Speaking of the fans here, Odegaard said, "The support we get here is incredible. When we arrived at the hotel, we saw the outside was packed with fans wearing jerseys, and we really felt everyone's enthusiasm."

"We also had 20,000 fans at the training session afterwards, which was a very special feeling. We were really grateful to feel such support after travelling so far. For us, it's great to make the fans happy and let them enjoy football."