Mark Noble

Mark James Noble (born 8 May 1987) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the sporting director of Championship club West Ham United. A fan of the club since childhood, Noble spent eighteen years with West Ham playing as a central midfielder, serving as club captain for seven years, before retiring at the end of the 2021–22 season. Aside from two brief loan spells at Hull City and Ipswich Town, Noble played all of his first team matches for the club, earning him the nickname "Mr West Ham". Noble has the most Premier League appearances for West Ham, in addition to being the longest serving player in the squad at the time of his retirement, having been in the first team since 2004. He 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. Noble represented England at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U21 levels, captaining the U21 side, scoring three goals in 20 games. Known for his proficiency in scoring penalty kicks, in 2020, Noble was rated as the player with the second highest conversion rate for penalties in the world over the last 20 years. His 90.5% conversion rate was only beaten by Robert Lewandowski's rate of 91.1%. After his retirement from professional football, Noble returned to West Ham as sporting director in January 2023.