Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard, 24, and “Shall we dance” Helene Spilling, 26, were pictured together at the London Football Awards on Monday.
The image was taken by Shutterstock and posted on the NTB image database late Tuesday. Dagbladet and several other media outlets have cited the photos.
But on Wednesday, photos of Ødegaard with Spilling were removed from the NTB database. This was confirmed by the visual editor at NTB, Christina Dorthellinger, to Dagbladet.
– We received a takedown message from Shutterstock last night. You get it often, so it’s always 99.999 percent related to rights, and in this case. As long as we don’t own the rights to the images, we have to hide or delete them, Dorthellinger told Dagbladet.
Image deleted
Dagbladet can now reveal why the image was removed.
– The image was removed at the request of the club, wrote Paul Nanson, head of the London Football Awards ceremony, in an email to Dagbladet late on Wednesday.
– Sorry, there is still a photo of Martin himself that can be used, if I may, wrote further Nanson.
So it was Arsenal, Martin Ødegaard’s club, who asked for the image to be removed.
– I haven’t heard of it. Each such case is slightly unique. I can’t say anything more than that. That’s not common, said Dorthellinger, who clarified that he was speaking with the caveat that the information was correct.
Ødegaard was named London’s best player of the year at the awards gala. After that he posed for photographers with the trophy, Spilling is in some of these photos. Norwegian celebrities hugging each other in front of photographers.
Dagbladet has asked Ødegaard’s agent, Bjørn Tore Kvarme, if he or Ødegaard would like to comment on the photo. He hasn’t responded to the question yet.
Spilling also did not respond to Dagbladet’s question.
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