NOS Football•
On paper it is a golden marriage, but the honeymoon was not so happy.After a period of adjustment, Noa Lang is finally unleashed in Naples. Juventus awaits tonight. “He hasn’t weakened for a moment,” father Jeffrey Lang explains.
A young Napoli fan stands outside the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday evening. Scarf on,a cardboard plate in his hand. He kindly asks, in English, for Lang’s shirt.
A reporter from the football channel CalcioNapoli 24 asks the boy why he wants Lang’s shirt, while he can also choose Kevin De Bruyne, Scott McTominay or Romelu Lukaku, not the least. “Our Ronaldo can grow tall,” the young fan shouts proudly.
He is now receiving acclaim, but until recently Lang was described as a bad buy in the Italian press. Some journalists have even speculated about a winter transfer for the flamboyant winger,who came over from PSV for 25 million last summer.
Big words, high expectations
“I am a player you come to the stadium for and enjoy,” Lang said with bravado, as the audience knows him in the Netherlands, at his presentation this summer. “First you sit quietly in your chair. And then when I have the ball, you come up to look.”
Those words created expectations that Lang was wholly unable to meet at first. But everything has changed in recent weeks. After the defeat at Bologna, coach Antonio Conte shifted his formation.
And suddenly things are going well, with victories over Atalanta Bergamo and AS Roma in the competition and over Qarabag in the Champions League. The reigning Italian champion is equal on points with table leader AC Milan.
‘It’s just begun’
And who is especially praised in football-mad Naples? The wingers. Long on the left and former Ajax player David Neres, who had not scored for napoli for almost a year, on the right. Manchester United loanee Rasmus Hojlund is in the lead.
Lang only recently scored his first goal against Atalanta. Neres, who, like Lang, was always up for some fun on the training field, was the first to approach him. “I am happy for my good friend. He deserved it,” said the Brazilian afterwards.And the goalscorer himself? “This is just the beginning,” he said in his Langs.
The 26-year-old winger,who has now won fifteen international matches,spends a lot of time with fellow countryman Sam Beukema,but also gets along well with Neres and the 34-year-old veteran De bruyne,who is currently injured.
Gold record
The belgian surprised the Dutchman last week with a gold record. The single ‘Matcha Coco’ by Lang (alias Noano) and Jonna Fraser has been listened to (many) more than ten million times. After ‘7K at your party’, ‘Damage’ and ‘Waka’, the umpteenth hit for the rapping footballer.
In Naples they wondered for a moment whether Lang was not a footballing rapper, but now they are (temporarily) also convinced of his artistic talents on the field.The marriage between the highly flammable Lang and the heated Napoli fans is ready for the next chapter.
“He really loves the neapolitan audience. That fanaticism suits him,” says father jeffrey.”I recently asked Noa if he is happy and he said: ‘Dad, this is everything for me’.”
