Nooa Laine

Nooa Hamzah Laine (, IPA: ; born 22 November 2002) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Malaysian Super League club Selangor. Born in Finland, he plays for the Malaysia national team.

Early life Laine was born in Jyväskylä, Finland, to a Finnish mother and Malaysian father. His father, Faried bin Baharin, is from Kampung Batu Laut, Tanjung Sepat, Selangor, Malaysia. his parents introduced him to the sport, and he has said he fell in love with football from his first training session.

Club career JJK Jyväskylä Laine started playing football at his hometown club JJK Jyväskylä, where he made his debut in the second-tier Ykkönen at the age of 15 in 2018, scoring one goal in 15 appearances.

Klubi 04 In April 2019, Laine then moved to HJK Helsinki reserve team, Klubi 04 for the 2019 season, where he scored four goals in 23 appearances in the third-tier Kakkonen league.

SJK Seinäjoki Laine joined the current club first division side SJK Seinäjoki in January 2021, cited the good facility is what attracting him to the club. He was chosen as the man of the match in his debut match against IFK Mariehamn. In July 2022, Laine scored his first European goal against Norwegian club Lillestrøm SK in the UEFA Europa Conference League second qualifying round. Laine became a regular starter for SJK under Spanish coach Joaquín Gómez, playing various roles and positions in midfield. Laine has described Gómez as the most intense coach he has worked with and credited those seasons as the period when he was fully introduced to senior professional football. On 19 September 2024, Laine made his AFC Champions League Two debut, starting in a 1–1 draw over Muangthong United.

On 5 November, it was announced that his move to Selangor was made permanent for an undisclosed fee.

International career Youth

Finland In 2017, Laine played for Finland U15 and Finland U16 team.

Laine was then called up to Finland U17 squad in 2018 where he make his debut on 5 August 2018 in a goalless draw against Denmark U17. Two days later, he provided an assist to Martin Salin and also scoring a goal in a 4–1 win. He scored his second international goal for Finland U17 on 28 January 2019 in a 2–0 win over Moldova U17.

Laine also trained with Malaysia's under-23 team in April 2022, with the goal of competing in the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup. He did not, however, make it into the squad because the citizenship documentation process was still ongoing. On 12 September 2022, the Football Association of Malaysia denied a claim that Laine was supposed to be on the call-up list for the national squad but was cancelled at the last minute. They explained that they had only contacted Laine recently to get an update on the process of documenting his status as a heritage player. He was not on the list for the central training call-up at this time because he was not scheduled to return to Malaysia until October 2022 to complete the process of obtaining documentation.

In November 2022, Laine was selected for the Finland U-21 by the new coach Mika Lehkosuo. He joined the team for a training camp and an internal match in Eerikkilä on 6–8 December. According to Laine, the possibility of representing Malaysia was first raised ahead of the 2022 AFF Championship, but he did not yet hold a Malaysian passport and attended the Finland U-21 camp instead. Laine has stated that his initial involvement was exploratory and that the decision to commit permanently to representing Malaysia came later.

International

Honours Selangor Malaysia FA Cup runner-up: 2024 MFL Challenge Cup: 2024-25

Malaysia Merdeka Tournament: 2024; runner-up 2023

Individual

Malaysia Super League Team of the Season: 2024–25