Noa Noëll Lang (born 17 June 1999) is a Dutch professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a winger for

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

club

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

and the Netherlands national team.

Club career

Ajax

On 1 December 2019, Lang became the first

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

player to score a hat-trick on his first

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

start in 60 years as Ajax came from two goals down to beat

Twente Twente ( , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germanic people ...

5–2. Later that month, Lang scored his first goal in the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

for Ajax, netting the opening goal in a 4–3 away win over

Telstar Telstar refers to a series of communications satellites. The first two, Telstar 1 and Telstar 2, were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched atop of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962, successfully relayed the first televisi ...

in the

second round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

. In January 2020, following Ajax's signing of

Ryan Babel Ryan Guno Babel (; born 19 December 1986) is a Dutch former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Babel began his career at Ajax in 1997, working his way up through the youth tea ...

in Lang's position, he was loaned out to fellow Eredivisie side Twente for the remainder of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

Club Brugge

2020–21 season: Loan and league title

On 5 October 2020, Ajax and

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

reached a transfer agreement for Lang to move to Brugge on an initial loan with an obligation to make the signing permanent by 1 July 2021. Three weeks later, he scored his first goal for the club from the penalty-spot in a losing effort against

OH Leuven Oh, OH, or Oh! is an interjection, often proclaiming surprise (emotion), surprise. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Albums * Oh! (Girls' Generation album), ''Oh!'' (Girls' Generation album), 2010 * Oh! (ScoLoHoFo album), ''Oh!'' (S ...

. Lang scored in Club Brugge's 3–0 victory over

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (, ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, according to some Russian sources), the club plays in the Russian Pr ...

in their penultimate

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

group stage match on 2 December to keep alive Club Brugge's hopes of qualifying for the knock-out round. However, Club Brugge could only manage a 2–2 draw in the final match against

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

side

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

and were parachuted down to the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

for the Round of 32. On 28 January 2021, in his first appearance in a

Bruges derby The Bruges derby (, ) is a local football rivalry between two Belgian Pro League clubs Club Brugge and Cercle Brugge, who share the Jan Breydel Stadium in Bruges, Belgium. The derby was first contested during the 1899–1900 season however the ...

against Cercle, Lang scored the winning goal as Club Brugge came back from 1–0 down to win 1–2. On 20 May, Lang scored as Brugge drew 3–3 with

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

to win the

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

title for the fourth time in six years and 17th time overall. Lang was involved in 28 goal contributions during his first campaign with Club Brugge, scoring 17 goals and adding a further 11 assists.

2021–22 season

On 17 July 2021, Lang scored in Club Brugge's 3–2 win over

Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...

in the

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( ; ; ), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian Pro League champions (also received the Super Cup host) and the Belgian Cup winners. If both teams are the same, ...

. On 15 September, he earned the

player of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

award in a 1–1 draw against

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

(PSG) in the UEFA Champions League.

PSV

On 8 July 2023, Dutch side PSV announced the signing of Lang on a five-year deal for a club record fee of €15 million. In his first training session, he suffered an injury. At first, the injury looked serious, but shortly after, Noa Lang was spotted training alone. His first game for the Dutch side was the 2023 Johan Cruyff Shield, which he decided by scoring the only goal.

International career

Born in the Netherlands, Lang is of Surinamese descent through his biological father. He is a youth international for the Netherlands. Lang considers himself Dutch,

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

se and Moroccan but can't internationally represent the latter due to not having Moroccan citizenship. On 8 October 2021, he made his debut for the Netherlands national team in a

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

against

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. Lang was named in the final Netherlands squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Personal life

Lang was born in the Netherlands. His father is Surinamese, while his mother is Dutch. His stepfather was Moroccan international footballer

Nourdin Boukhari Nourdin Boukhari (; born 30 June 1980) is a Moroccan former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. After retiring, he worked as a youth coach, and is the currently assistant coach of Eredivisie club Sparta Rotte ...

. During the 2009–10 football season, Boukhari and Lang resided in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, playing for Kasımpaşa and

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

junior team respectively.

Controversy

In May 2021, a video circulated online showing Lang joining an

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

chant of the Club Brugge supporters aimed at rival

, who is seen as historically linked to the Jewish community. He was investigated by the

Royal Belgian Football Association The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA; ; ; ) is the governing body of football in Belgium. It was a founding member of FIFA in 1904 and UEFA in 1954 and was based in Brussels, not far from the King Baudouin Stadium. Since October 2021, th ...

. While ignoring calls to apologize, Lang justified his chantings with supporters as "a nickname" claiming that "racism and prejudice are well known to me ..I didn’t want to offend anyone with that. I’m done with the subject and won’t be revisiting it." Lang, who played with Ajax, before joining Club Brugge, was defended by the team's organisation claiming that "there was no anti-Semitic undertone". The Club Brugge fans have been noticed by the press for racist chants. The

RBFA The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA; ; ; ) is the governing body of association football, football in Belgium. It was a founding member of FIFA in 1904 and UEFA in 1954 and was based in Brussels, not far from the King Baudouin Stadium. S ...

condemned his behavior, the Belgian Foreign Minister

Sophie Wilmès Sophie Wilmès (; born 15 January 1975) is a Belgium, Belgian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Belgium, prime minister of Belgium from 2019 to 2020. She later served as List of Foreign Ministers of Belgium, minister of foreign affa ...

declared: "Unacceptable, unbearable and it has no place in our society. We must fight it as vigorously as all other forms of racism", political parties condemned the chant, while he was obliged by the Federal prosecutor's office to visit the Kazern Dossin Centre as a disciplinary measure.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Netherlands score listed first, score column indicates score after each Lang goal.''

Honours

Jong Ajax *

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

: 2017–18 Ajax *

: 2018–19 *

Johan Cruyff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footbal ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Club Brugge *

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2021–22 *

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

PSV *

: 2023–24, 2024–25 *

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Individual * Belgian Young Professional Footballer of the Year:

References

External links

Profile
at the PSV Eindhoven website
Profile
at the Royal Dutch Football Association website (in Dutch) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Noa 1999 births Living people Sportspeople from Capelle aan den IJssel Footballers from South Holland Dutch men's footballers Men's association football wingers Jong Ajax players AFC Ajax players FC Twente players Club Brugge KV players PSV Eindhoven players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players Belgian Pro League players Netherlands men's youth international footballers Netherlands men's under-21 international footballers Netherlands men's international footballers 2022 FIFA World Cup players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent 21st-century Dutch sportsmen