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 ...
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 ...
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 Regions of France, region, the Pref ...
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 and the 1994–95 Coupe de France, playing as a substitute in both finals, the latter against future club
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
Coupe de la Ligue
The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...
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, 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 Franc ...
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 found ...
, 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; the C ...
. 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 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 ''Dü ...
'' (''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 O ...
.
Nouma became a member of Beşiktaş Congress in July 2012. In 2017, he played with Mustafa Topaloğlu in "Didi" commercials.