Martin Odegaard will likely be moving out on loan this season.

Whether they are young talents in danger of losing their way, or more established players who need to do it all again, there are plenty of footballers who will have points to prove this season. ESPN FC takes a look at eight of them.

Martin Odegaard (midfielder, Real Madrid)

If all goes to plan, this will be the season that the 17-year-old prodigy gets a serious run of top-level football under his belt. However, it will take a loan move to do it and Ligue 1 side Rennes are the current favourites to take Odegaard for the next nine months after Ajax reportedly turned down the opportunity.

To say that this term may be make or break for Odegaard does not reflect brilliantly on the pressures put on young footballers these days, but it has not always been an easy 18 months since his high-profile arrival at Real Madrid from Stromsgodset. That fact was compounded when, in his book "Quiet Leadership," former Real coach Carlo Ancelotti claimed the Norwegian's signing had "to do with PR." This season, Odegaard should receive the chance to prove he can provide much more than that.

Alexandre Pato (striker, Villarreal)

Last season's curious loan spell at Chelsea -- he signed in January but did not make his debut until April 2 -- never felt right and it was little surprise when Pato returned his parent club, Corinthians. The Brazilian's career appeared to be tailing off, so his subsequent move to Villarreal, who finished fourth in La Liga last season, raised a few eyebrows and looks like a last opportunity to pick up where a brilliant young career left off at AC Milan earlier in the decade.

Pato turns 27 in September and should be at his peak now; the move looks a gamble for both parties, but Villarreal tends to be a stable environment. If new manager Fran Escriba, who replaced Marcelino shortly after Pato's arrival, can get the best out of a mercurial talent then it could be one of the summer's better deals.

Mario Gotze (forward, Borussia Dortmund)

Gotze was spared any wrath that Borussia Dortmund fans might have dished out when he remained on the bench for the 2-0 defeat to former club Bayern Munich in the German Super Cup. It certainly took bravery to rejoin Dortmund three years after departing for domestic rivals Bayern, but Gotze was running out of options. His career had stalled since his fairy-tale World Cup-winning goal in 2014 and his face never fitted under former manager Pep Guardiola.

A move back to the club where he made his name seems sensible as long as the home faithful are onboard, and Gotze has been at pains to build some bridges. "It was not a decision I would make today," the 24-year-old wrote of his original move, but the best means of atonement would be a repeat of the form that caused the issue.

Hatem Ben Arfa (forward, Paris Saint-Germain)

There was a certain poetry to Ben Arfa's first goal for PSG -- a thumping finish in the Trophee des Champions against Lyon, the club that launched an often perplexing career -- and although a quiet 65 minutes on his league debut at Bastia did not reach those heights, it will be fascinating to see how the 29-year-old playmaker fares.

Last year's wonderful campaign with Nice, in which he scored 17 league goals and attracted interest from across the continent, came from virtually nowhere. But while PSG does not provide the most testing environment domestically, the coming season should tell us plenty about Ben Arfa's capacity to perform regularly at a top club.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (midfielder, Southampton)

If Hojbjerg seems to have been around for a long time it is because he has. Ever since he joined Bayern Munich from Brondby as a 17-year-old in 2012, he has been touted as one of Europe's next big things. The Dane's tactical flexibility -- he can play in a number of midfield roles -- and technical accomplishment seemed perfectly cut out for Guardiola's management, but he never quite established himself and saw the bulk of his Bundesliga action during loans at Augsburg and Schalke.

By this summer it was clearly time to move on, and if the £12.8m fee Southampton are reported to have paid speaks of his promise, then it also means he will be expected to justify the early hype.

N'Golo Kante (midfielder, Chelsea)

In many ways, the Premier League title winner -- and one who may well have been the division's best all-round player last season -- has nothing at all to prove. But Kante's meteoric rise means he will be expected to do it all again, and it is no accident that he was top of Antonio Conte's list when the Italian took over at Chelsea.

The Frenchman has been signed to provide the drive and aggression Conte desires in his teams and the early evidence in Monday's 2-1 win over West Ham was positive; if he can play a prominent part in raising Chelsea to their levels of old then his quality will be written in stone.

Idrissa Gueye (midfielder, Everton)

Just how important can a Kante-style player be nowadays? Signing a regular from Aston Villa's disastrous 2015-16 campaign might not have seemed an obvious move, but Everton may have pulled off a masterstoke in capturing Gueye.

The Senegalese midfielder did his job well last season -- mopping up attacks in front of the back four and recycling possession -- but his teammates were ill-equipped to make use of his work. There is far more chance of Everton's creative players building on the platform Gueye creates and his influence has already been compared to that of Kante at Leicester. That may be overstating things but the 26-year-old's star is rising and he appears to be exactly the kind of tenacious, solidifying force the Toffees have lacked in the middle.

Victor Valdes (goalkeeper, Middlesbrough)

Valdes is now 34 and, until dislodging previous Middlesbrough No. 1 Dimi Konstantopoulos to start in the promoted club's opener against Stoke, he had effectively been in the wilderness since departing Barcelona in 2014. His subsequent spell at Manchester United brought two appearances, a long-term injury and a substantial amount of acrimony; a loan at Standard Liege was not much more successful and it was a lifeline when fellow countryman Aitor Karanka enlisted him for Boro in July.

The keeper has won virtually everything going, although there have sometimes been suspicions that his proficiency with ball at feet -- as well as the team's general dominance -- made up for other deficiencies during his two decades in Catalonia. A full season in the Premier League at this stage in his career would surely prove a few people wrong, though he will be competing with Brad Guzan (another to have jumped ship at Aston Villa) for his place.

Nick Ames is a football journalist who writes for ESPN FC on a range of topics. Twitter: @NickAmes82.