Noël Bigo Atom (born 5 January 2005) is a German 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 defender for the

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

of the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. He is a Germany youth international.

Early life

The son of Emmanuel Atom, he played as a youngster with

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football league system, German footbal ...

but joined the youth set-up

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

at 13 years-old with Hertha reportedly receiving a five figure training fee.

Career

RB Leipzig

Atom made 34 appearances for the Leipzig youth team, including seven games in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

, scoring three goals and providing three assists.

Brighton & Hove Albion

In August 2023, Atom signed for the

side

for an undisclosed fee. On May 15, 2024, Atom was named in the matchday squad for Brighton's 2-1 home defeat against Chelsea.

International career

A dual-national of Germany and

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, he played for the

Germany national under-17 football team Germany national under-17 football team, also known as Germany Under-17s or Germany U17(s), represents Germany in association football at an under-17 age level and is controlled by German Football Association, the governing body for football in ...

in March 2022 in U17 Euros qualifiers against Scotland U-17 and Czechia U17.

Playing style

Atom is a left-footed defender capable of playing left-sided centre back or left back.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aton, Noël 2005 births Living people German men's footballers Men's association football defenders Germany men's youth international footballers Place of birth missing (living people) German people of Cameroonian descent German expatriate sportspeople in England 21st-century German sportsmen