EXTRA TIME

Legend

July 18, 2020 at 7:37 am Leave a comment

On the night Mark Noble became one of only 10 players in the last 120 years to make 500 first team appearances for West Ham Utd.

Noble, born 8 May 1987, has played almost all of his youth and first team football for the club apart from two short loan spells at Hull City and Ipswich Town in 2006. His loyalty and services to the club have earned him the nickname “Mr. West Ham“.

He now is part of the small and illustrious group of players who played 500 first team games in Claret and Blue

Vic Watson, Jimmy Ruffell, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Billy Bonds, Frank Lampard Sr, Trevor Brooking, Alvin Martin and Steve Potts

Mark Noble quite rightly takes his place among those legends.

Born in Canning Town, East London, Noble played for Barking Colts and moved to Arsenal‘s academy at age 11. Local side West Ham United showed an interest and Noble signed as a youth player. He became the youngest player ever to appear in their reserve team, aged 15 and made his debut in the senior team at the age of just 17 in the League Cup in August 2004 in a 2–0 win against Southend United. He made his league debut in the Championship in January 2005, in a 4–2 defeat away at Wolverhampton Wanderers. On 30 May 2005, Noble played in the 2005 Football League Championship play-off Final which saw West Ham beat Preston North End 1–0 to secure a return to the Premier League. He had entered the game as an 82nd-minute substitute for Shaun Newton.

Noble scored his first goal for West Ham against Brighton & Hove Albion, the side’s first of three in a 3–0 home win in January 2007 in the third round of the FA Cup, from an assist by Carlos Tevez. On 4 March, he scored his first Premiership goal and the opening goal of the game, against Tottenham at Upton Park in a game West Ham eventually lost 4–3 in the final seconds. He was in tears on the pitch afterwards, but in the end he helped West Ham securing Premier League status in their “Great Escape” of the 2006–07 season. He played 11 games in all competitions, scoring three goals in that season.

In 2012 he helped West Ham regain their Premier League status in the play-off final at Wembley, being part of a promotion winning team for the second time in his career.

He has played for England at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U21 levels. He captained the U21 side, scoring three goals in 20 appearances. Despite appearing for England at numerous youth levels, he never was capped for the full international side.

Noble has played more Premier League games for West Ham than any other player, in addition to being the longest serving player in their current squad, having been in the first team since 2004. He is West Ham’s first-choice taker for penalty kicks and has won the club’s Hammer of the Year trophy twice, as well as being voted Hammer of the Decade at the end of the 2010s.

In 2014, Noble was ranked in the top five penalty takers in the top European leagues and was in the top 10 in the world based on the percentage of penalties successfully converted since 2009.

2015 he took over from Kevin Nolan as Club Captain and “has proved himself to be the inspirational leader we all knew he would be,” as West Ham’s joint Chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold put it in their message of honour on his 500th appearance for the Club.

In his first season as a skipper Noble steered the team to an unforgettable final season at the Boleyn Ground, and he has been a constant and comforting source of reliability during the first few seasons at London Stadium.

Noble (33) is one of only 10 players in the last 120 years to make 500 first team appearances for West Ham Utd. And in his 500th game on Friday evening, he once again led his team-mates into a crucial battle and stood up to be counted, marking this appearance with another typically committed and influential performance from the centre of midfield, helping secure Premier League status for the Club that he’s giving blood, sweat and tears for in every single game he walked on to the pitch.

Born in east London, and bleeding Claret and Blue like the supporters of this great Club, Mark Noble always has been acknowledged as “one of us”. He’s a fantastic servant to West Ham United and will forever be remembered as “Mr. West Ham” in times to come

What a legend!

A message from the Joint-Chairmen to Mark Noble:
https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/july/18-july/message-joint-chairmen-mark-noble

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