Ranking the 5 youngest debutants in Real Madrid's history

#3 Alberto Rivera — 17 years, 3 months, 25 days

Alberto Rivera played nearly 282 La Liga games before retiring

Alberto Rivera retired after enduring a lengthy career that spanned over two decades. He accumulated about 282 La Liga games under his belt before hanging his boots. The midfielder featured for various clubs including Numancia, Levante, Betis, Sporting de Gijón and Elche.

Alberto Rivera's career started off with Real Madrid's youth academy. After marking his presence for the senior side on 10th June 1995, Rivera returned to play for the club's reserves. On paper, though, he is the third-youngest debutant in the club's history.

Rivera left the Spanish capital in 1999. First, as a loanee and then permanently. The Spaniard went on to play lengthy stints with Levante and then Real Betis.

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#2 Rene Petit — 16 years, 6 months, 29 days

Rene Petit marked his debut for Real Madrid at the age of 16. Featuring for the Galacticos in a Copa del Rey fixture against Athletic Bilbao, Petit became the then-youngest player to don the legendary white dress. The record stood for nearly a century until it was broken by Martin Odegaard in 2015.

Rene Petit marked his debut alongside Jose Antonio Erice. Rene was a popular figure in Spanish football during the early 1900s. He played alongside his older brother Juan Petit. Rene earned a lot of positive attention for his pace, strength and precision despite his tender stature.

Rene Petit retired from football to become a scientist.

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#1 Martin Odegaard — 16 years, 5 months, 5 days

Odegaard came off the bench after the hour mark to replace the great Cristiano Ronaldo

In 2015, the world came to know about a prodigy called Martin Odegaard. The creative attacking midfielder couldn't escape the eyes of Real Madrid's scouts. He was spotted by the Blacos' recruiting team during his Strømsgodset days.

During the last phase of Strømsgodset's league campaign, Martin Odegaard was approached by leading clubs around Europe. The Swedish prodigy trained with Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Arsenal. When the offer from Real Madrid knocked on his door, Odegaard couldn't say no.

Thus, the then-17-year-old Martin Odegaard joined Real Madrid and created a cloud of hype around him. Carlo Ancelotti, who was serving his first stint at Madrid, confirmed that the starlet would be training with both the senior team and the Castilla team.

The latter was managed by none other than Zinedine Zidane. He stepped onto the grass for the first time with the senior squad on the last day of the 2014-15 season. Odegaard came off the bench after the hour mark to replace the great Cristiano Ronaldo.