"I think he was a perfect example for every football player," said Peter Moore, the former chief operating officer at EA Sports. "When I played FIFA, I always tried to be Hans de Noteboom and do his tricks."
Moore, who went on to become Liverpool's CEO in 2017, would describe the prolific striker as "one of the best Dutch players ever", despite his late arrival on the scene. Finishing? 92. Sprint speed? 85. Shot power? 95.
However, to those beyond the FIFA community, Hans de Noteboom is a nobody.
Type his name into Google and the lack of information raises serious questions. Why didn't he play a single minute of professional football? And why did he go on to become a referee?
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Hans de Noteboom does not exist, that's why.
Loosely based on the real-life attributes of then-Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, the 31-year-old was created by EA Sports for the FIFA 08 release after they failed to secure licensing for the Netherlands national team.
Still, that didn't stop fans from falling in love with the 89-rated talisman.
In fact, after being initially left out of the following release, EA Sports included De Noteboom in the FIFA 09 winter update following thousands of complaints.
A year later, the license issues were resolved and the main man was removed from the game, but EA decided to celebrate his legacy with a short parody film called Ode to de Noteboom.
Peter Moore and producer David Rutter paid touching tributes as they attempted to put a permanent end to "The Boom".
But once again, his no-show sparked a huge reaction from the community, so EA decided to make him a referee for the following series.
De Noteboom remained in the game for years to come, although the Dutchman is widely regarded as the second-worst referee of all time, behind Belgian official Gijsbert Declerck.
TikTok user Jals, who creates FIFA-related content on his channel, recently made a video on De Noteboom's legacy.
"It's unbelievable how much hype this fake player gained," he said before showing the Ode to de Noteboom parody film, as seen above.
"This is for a fake player, by the way. EA would never do anything like that now. Like, it’s bizarre that so much culture has built up around a player that didn’t even exist."
"Shout out to Hans De Noteboom," he added. "Bring him back, give him a Team of the Season or something. Let’s have some fun. Come on."
Topics: Netherlands, EA Sports, FIFA
Jack Kenmare