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 le ...

who plays as a winger for

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

club

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 29,062.

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), by the ancient Greek ...

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 Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

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

Twente Twente ( nl, 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 Germ ...

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

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

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

Telstar Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the fir ...

in the

second round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...

. In January 2020, following Ajax's signing of

Ryan Babel Ryan may refer to: People and fictional characters *Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) *Ryan (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia * Division of Ryan, an elector ...

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 tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

Club Brugge

2020–21 season: Loan and league title

On 5 October 2020, Ajax and

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

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), 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, acco ...

in their penultimate

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

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, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

side

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and were parachuted down to the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

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 resul ...

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 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 participant o ...

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 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, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

to win the

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

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

in the

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( nl, Belgische Supercup, ; french: Supercoupe de Belgique; german: Belgischer Fußball-Super Cup), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian First Division A champion ...

. On 15 September, he earned the

player of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award 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 chosen from the winn ...

award in a 1–1 draw against

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

in the UEFA Champions League.

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 (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

se and Moroccan but can't internationally represent the latter due to not having Moroccan citizenship. He made his debut for the

Netherlands national football team The Netherlands national football team ( nl, Nederlands voetbalelftal or simply ''Het Nederlands elftal'') has represented the Netherlands in international men's football matches since 1905. The men's national team is controlled by the Royal Du ...

on 8 October 2021 in a World Cup qualifier against

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. On 11 November 2022, Lang was selected to represent The Netherlands at the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

Personal life

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

Nourdin Boukhari Nourdin Boukhari ( ar, نور الدين البخاري; born 30 June 1980) is a Dutch-Moroccan former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. After retiring, he worked as a youth coach he is the currently assistant coach of Eredivis ...

Controversy

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

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

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, Noa 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." Noa Lang, who played with AFC 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 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, ...

condemned his behavior, the Belgian Foreign Minister

Sophie Wilmès Sophie Wilmès (; born 15 January 1975) is a Belgian politician who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2019 to 2020. She later served as minister of Foreign Affairs from 2020 to 2022. A member of the Reformist Movement, she is the fir ...

declared : "Unacceptable, unbearable and it has no place in our society. We must fight it as vigorously as all other forms of racism", politicial 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 (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

: 2017–18 Ajax *

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

: 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 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Club Brugge *

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 b ...

, 2021–22 *

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Individual * Belgian Young Professional Footballer of the Year:

References

External links

Profile
at the Club Brugge K.V. website
Profile
at the Royal Dutch Football Association website (in Dutch) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Noa 1999 births Living people People from Capelle aan den IJssel Footballers from South Holland Dutch footballers Association football wingers Jong Ajax players AFC Ajax players FC Twente players Club Brugge KV players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players Belgian First Division A players Netherlands youth international footballers Netherlands under-21 international footballers Netherlands international footballers 2022 FIFA World Cup players Dutch expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Belgium Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent