Pascal Olivier Nouma (born 6 January 1972) is a French former 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

Career

Nouma started his career in the Paris Saint-Germain youth team before moving around other teams in France. He played for

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

and

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,1994–95 Coupe de la Ligue The 1994–95 Coupe de la Ligue began on 29 November 1994 and the final took place on 3 May 1995 at the Stade de France. Paris Saint-Germain went on to win the tournament, beating Bastia 2–0 in the final. First round The matches were played on ...

and the

1994–95 Coupe de France The Coupe de France 1994–95 was its 78th edition. It was won by Paris SG. Round of 16 Quarter-finals Semi-finals ---- Final Topscorer Anthony Bancarel (3 goals) Tony Cascarino (3 goals) Cyrille Pouget (3 goals) Ricardo Gomes (3 g ...

, playing as a substitute in both finals, the latter against future club Strasbourg. He also scored as PSG won the 1995 Trophée des Champions. In 1996 he left for Strasbourg, winning the Coupe de la Ligue there in 1997 and staying for two seasons, before moving to

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'' ...

. While at Lens he played in the final as they won the

1998–99 Coupe de la Ligue The 1998–99 Coupe de la Ligue began on 28 October 1998 and the final took place on 8 May 1999 at the Stade de France. Paris Saint-Germain were the defending champions, but were knocked-out by Montpellier in the Quarter-finals. Lens went on to ...

, which was the third time he'd won the trophy in five seasons and with three different teams. After two seasons at Lens, he left for Turkish club

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

, where he achieved phenomenal success and still maintains his popularity among Beşiktaş fans, who composed special songs for him. He played for them for one season before moving to play for

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

the next year. He returned for a short spell at Beşiktaş the next season, but received a seven-month suspension for celebrating a goal against arch-rivals Fenerbahçe by putting his hands down his shorts, a gesture he described as "a private moment of joy". The Beşiktaş board were forced to cancel his contract as a result. The incident did not diminish his popularity with Beşiktaş fans, who still look back fondly on his lob shot against Dynamo Kiev in the third round of the UEFA Cup in 2003. Following this incident he played in Qatar and went on trial at clubs in countries like the US and Scotland.

Personal life

Born in

Épinay-sur-Seine Épinay-sur-Seine (, literally ''Épinay on Seine'') is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The church of Notre-Dame-des-Missions-du-cygne d'Enghien, designed by Paul Tournon, may be fou ...

, France, Nouma's ancestors are from

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

. He is particularly famous for his eccentric behaviour both on and off the pitch. During an interview with ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...

'' he claimed to be a

Turk Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...

and to feel that Turkey was his home country. Nouma works as an actor, and made his film debut in a Turkish movie, ''

Dünyayı Kurtaran Adamın Oğlu ''Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam'ın Oğlu'' (literally ''The Son of the Man who Saved the World'' and regularly titled ''Turks in Space'' in English) is a 2006 Turkish science fiction action comedy film directed by Kartal Tibet and the sequel to '' ...

'' (''The Son of the Man Who Saved the World''). Nouma co-hosted radio show ''"Aragaz"'' along with professional radio host at local radio station

Metro FM Metro FM is a national radio station in South Africa owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The station broadcasts on FM Stereo as well as the DStv Bouquet Channel 801. Telephone : History The station started broadcasting in ...

. Nouma became a member of Beşiktaş Congress in July 2012. In 2017, he played with Mustafa Topaloğlu in "Didi" commercials.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nouma, Pascal 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Épinay-sur-Seine French footballers France under-21 international footballers Association football forwards Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players Lille OSC players Stade Malherbe Caen players RC Strasbourg Alsace players RC Lens players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Olympique de Marseille players Al-Khor SC players Livingston F.C. players Ligue 1 players Süper Lig players Qatar Stars League players Competitors at the 1993 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for France Mediterranean Games medalists in football French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Qatar French expatriate sportspeople in Scotland French expatriate sportspeople in Turkey French expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Footballers from Seine-Saint-Denis