90min
·4 August 2023
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Yahoo sports90min
·4 August 2023
With 550 appearances to his name and an academy pitch re-named in his honour, it's fair to say that Mark Noble is a West Ham United legend.
The midfielder retired in 2022 after almost 20 years in the Hammers senior squad, but is now set to lace up his boots once again on 5th August to play in the Game 4 Ukraine at Stamford Bridge.
Speaking exclusively to 90min ahead of the game, Noble discussed why he got involved in the event and his thoughts on West Ham's UEFA Europa Conference League triumph.
"I knew we had a really good chance of winning the Conference League. There were some good teams in it, but I knew we were the strongest.
"To watch us, and we've gone through some pains let me tell you, but to have that moment was really special.
"As an all-round moment it was really special. I've had some great times in my career at West Ham, but that was really special.
"For me it's very different [from achievements during my playing career] because, even for me at West Ham I grew up as a fan and lived in the area. To make my debut, to captain the team in the last ever game at the Boleyn (Upton Park), to have a testimonial there and then to captain the team into the new stadium, there were so many special moments that I had that will be part of West Ham's history."
"Oleksandr Zinchenko text me and asked me to play and I said 'yeah, sure' straight away because I shared a dressing room with Andriy Yarmolenko while all of this was going on. I saw how much pain he was in but not only that, he was so worried and you could see it on his face.
"But he kept training and he scored some incredibly important goals for us that season. It takes some man to do that. To keep on coming in and training everyday with what was going on in his country. Out of respect I thought I had to do it for Yarmo."
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