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Finding Space with Han-Noah Massengo
PHOTOGRAPHY & CREATIVE DIRECTION Scott Groult
June 4 2026
However, a new generation has quietly been challenging that idea for a while.
Raised in an era where culture moves at the speed of the game, today's players are not just athletes but observers and documentarians. They leave home for unfamiliar environments as teens, build communities across continents and develop identities that stretch beyond the ninety minutes that define them in the ever-critical public eye. The modern footballer is no longer simply a participant in football culture. Increasingly, they are helping shape it.
Han-Noah Massengo belongs to that generation.
Still only 24, the midfielder has already lived a full life, one defined by movement. From his hometown of Villepinte, on the outskirts of Paris, football has taken him to Reims, Monaco, Bristol, Auxerre, Burnley and now Augsburg. Each move has brought a new environment and with it new languages, new traditions. It has also raised questions, such as what it means to belong.
Home, Han-Noah has learned, is more a feeling than a place. Something carried within, through routines and relationships with the people closest to him.
That understanding emerged alongside another discovery. After leaving the academy environment and moving to England, Han-Noah found himself with something he had rarely experienced before: the time and space to explore who he was beyond football. The structures that had defined his teenage years- training, school, teammates, routine- gave way to a newfound curiosity about the world around him.
Photography arrived almost by accident. A camera bought for his sister eventually found its way into his hands, first on holidays with friends and later on walks through the cities he called home. What began as a way of capturing moments soon became something more meaningful.
At first, his attention was drawn to people, places and the details of unfamiliar surroundings. Over time, however, the photographs became less about what was in front of him and more about what he was feeling. Looking back at images taken in Burnley, where football was not unfolding as he had hoped, he sees a more reflective photographer. The photographs made in Auxerre and Augsburg feel different, lighter, more spontaneous, more open.
Through the camera, Han-Noah became both participant and observer; living football's transient existence while quietly creating a record of it at the same time.
Football is an unforgiving sport. It offers little respite and asks more than it gives. As such, many footballers take up hobbies as a form of escape. Yet to frame photography as an escape from football would be to misunderstand the relationship between the two. For Han-Noah, there is little distinction. The same instincts that shape his work behind the camera, anticipation, awareness, composition and timing, are the qualities that define his game in midfield. Football, he insists, is an art form too.
In an age where players are increasingly revealing more of themselves beyond the pitch, Han-Noah offers a compelling example of what that evolution looks like. Not a footballer searching for an identity outside the game, but one expanding the possibilities of what life inside it can be.
We spoke to Han-Noah about movement, belonging, photography and the creative threads that connect everything he does.
Leaving Home, Seeing the World
IH: You’ve lived and played across different countries from a young age. How have those environments shaped how you see the world beyond football?
HM: It definitely helped me understand that the world is so much bigger than what I already knew. I was 13 when I first left my hometown, Villepinte, to go to Reims to play football. It wasn’t that far, only a 45 minutes train ride but it was my first time really experiencing something different than what I had always known. People spoke differently, acted differently. I could tell it was different to back home. I then lived in Monaco, Bristol, Auxerre, Burnley, Auxerre again and now Augsburg.
The biggest change for me was leaving France to go to Bristol. Learning a new language. Discovering a whole new culture. It was the first time that I consciously realized that I was opening a lot of doors that I had no idea existed.
I don’t know if I can see the world beyond football yet. All of those experiences have been related to and happened thanks to football. While I had the chance to discover some new places, I’ve never really felt like I could fully grasp and understand the places I was living in. Football takes up most of my time and even though I’ve always tried to blend in and make a conscious effort, it takes more than a few months or years to do so. It might be something that I will only understand once I’m done with professional football.
IH: What did leaving home early teach you about identity, not just as a player, but as a person?
HM: I really started to think about all that when I arrived in England. It made me realize that I had an identity that I had inherited from birth. Where I’m from, where I grew up, who I grew up with— my origins. And then that I had a whole other part of myself that was up to me to develop.
Outside of football I didn’t really know what I liked. I had been in an academy surrounded by people my age from 13 to 18. We were in the same classes in school, trained together, ate together. Did everything together. While this had its advantages, I feel like it also made us like the same things, watch the same things, talk the same way, dress the same and this made it hard to create our own identity. Living in Bristol and leaving the academy in Monaco coincided with me being done with school which meant that I had much more time to explore. Which I did.
IH: How do you experience a new city when you arrive, what do you notice first?
AV: The process is always different. In Reims we were too young and we weren’t allowed to wander around. In Monaco we had more freedom but I was never going out. The days were still very busy and I didn’t really feel the need explore. I stayed 3 years but I don’t think I know the place that well. In Bristol it was different, I was so curious, all I would do after training was walk around the city in the first few months. I wasn’t thinking that much. All I was looking for was shops where I could buy some nice clothes and shoes. In Auxerre and Burnley I wandered around a lot also but with more purpose. What I usually notice first are the things that are linked to the football club in some way or another. It could be a little sticker put on the wall or some graffiti. People wearing a hat with the football club logo on it. Anything really. For Augsburg everything was different. I signed for Augsburg two weeks after me and my wife had our first child, Nazario. We didn’t really leave the hotel room the first month. The focus was not really on discovering the surroundings but more on helping find a place as soon as possible, spending time with my family and making it through pre-season. We luckily found an apartment in the city center which made it easier to explore a little bit later on.
IH: Do you feel a sense of belonging anywhere in particular, or has movement become part of who you are?
HM: I’ve learned to feel a sense of belonging wherever I’ve been. As soon as I move into a new place I’m trying to make it feel as homely as possible. I have my own furniture which helps. I try to recreate routines I’ve had in the past. But movement has definitely become a part of who I am. I know that those routines are not permanent, it’s just an illusion. Feeling home is more a feeling than a place for me. It’s me being surrounded by my loved ones. I have my wife, my son. My family and friends that come over to visit and that’s what is home to me. Independent of where I’m living.
IH: In what ways has football exposed you to cultures or perspectives you might not have encountered otherwise?
HM: I got to know people that I wouldn’t even have talked to or even encountered if I wasn’t playing football. I’m from the surbubs of Paris and I like to keep to myself. I like to spend time alone or with people that I’ve known for a long time. Before changing countries I never really felt the need to connect with other people because I felt like I was good with the people that I already knew. But living abroad forced me to open up more. To be more curious. And I started to love it. Hear people’s stories. Passions. It brought us together while at the same time it makes me even more proud of where I’m from.
Growing into Photography
IH:
When did you first pick up a camera and what made you want to keep using it? HM: I had bought a camera for my sister that was going to come and live with me in Bristol in 2020 so she could take some pictures while discovering the city. I thought it was a cool idea but she never used it so I decided to use it a few months later, and brought it with me on a holiday with my friends. I didn’t really end up using it that much but they found it cool and took some pictures. I didn’t think much about it and got back to my normal life. A year passed and we went on holidays with the same friends, I brought the camera again and this time I started taking pictures. For some reason I started to love it. I can’t really tell what made me keep taking pictures but once I had that feeling it never left me.
IH: What draws your attention when you’re shooting. Is it people, places, light, or something harder to define?
HM: It was people at first. I started shooting my friends and my family. But then I started to love shooting everything. Landscape, people, details, you name it. What I’m chasing now is more so a feeling than the perfect image. Something very hard to define and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to. That’s probably why I’m chasing it. When I look back at my photos, I can usually tell how I was feeling. My Burnley pictures for example, a time where football wasn’t really going the way I wanted it to go, look more reflective than my Auxerre or Augsburg pictures, where football was going much better and where my photography was more spontaneous.
IH: How would you describe your visual style, what makes an image feel like yours?
HM: I think that it has constantly been evolving these past few years. Like I said it’s very dependent on the way I’m feeling. Sometimes it can be ironic and make you feel almost like I had a little smirk on my face while taking the picture, sometimes very serious. Sometimes more deep and reflective. But I’m not really trying to have a visual style I’m just trying to create what feels right to me. It’s probably for other people to say what makes an image feel like mine. I already know that it’s mine.
IH: Do you shoot with intention, or do you prefer to let moments reveal themselves?
HM: Both, I sometimes have an idea of what I want a picture to look like and sometimes I’m just reacting to what I’m seeing. I’d say, though, that there is always intention, the act of having a camera and pointing it at something while trying to find the best way to compose, in the best way possible in a short moment of time is always intentional.
Translating Football into Art
IH: What does photography allow you to express that football doesn’t?
HM: I don’t think that it’s much different to be honest. I see both as a way of being and expressing myself. Football is also an art for me. A beautiful step-over gives me equally the same pleasure as taking a picture that I know means something to me.
IH: Do you see parallels between how you move on the pitch and how you frame an image?
HM: Having to react according to what is being given to you is a similarity that I find in both. Anticipating too. Trying to predict the subject’s or your opponent’s next move is key in both. Practice is also a big similarity. Practicing to see or take a photograph is the same thing as practicing a pass, a dribble or a shot for me. You have to practice it consciously first so you can be ready when the moment occurs. You kinda go through the same process. I visualize, I repeat, I train on the pitch so that it comes naturally. I look at photo-books, pictures that I’ve already taken, I think, I visualize so it can also come naturally.
IH: How does your awareness of space, which is so important in midfield, translate into your photography?
HM: I think it’s totally opposite, in midfield what I’m usually trying to do is to look as far as possible so I can see as much of the pitch as possible and then if I don’t see anything interesting I look for closer options. In photography I usually use 28 or 35mm lens which doesn’t allow me to see very far. Everything that I see in the viewfinder is in front of me.
IH: Has photography changed the way you experience football, either on or off the pitch?
HM: I’m definitely aware that the photographs that I take now will be something that people will look back at. My family, the fans, my teammates. I’m glad that I get to document all that. Every moment experienced and lived, every picture taken might not ever happen again.
It’s 2026 now and when I look back at the pictures taken 15-20 years ago of my idols (Zidane, Ronaldinho, R9, Thierry Henry) in the 2000s I can clearly tell that it was a different time, it makes me want to travel back there to see what it was like to play and live in this era as an adult. Maybe the era we’re living in now will create those same kind of emotions to the younger generation. Maybe the pictures I’m taking will inspire someone to pick up a camera or start something else. Or perhaps they will play a small part in creating a connection, an attachment between the new generation of FC Augsburg fans and us players. Maybe it will help them feel closer to us which will then start or reinforce the love that they have for the club.
Photography has definitely changed the way I’m seeing football off the pitch and the role that it can play in one’s life. You can just feel so much only by looking at a photograph. On the pitch though, it didn’t change much. Since I’ve started, it’s always been action mode and nothing else once I step foot on the green rectangle, and I hope it stays that way.
IH: Do you think footballers are encouraged enough to explore creative identities beyond the game?
HM: I think that they are yes, especially compared to how it was before from what I’m hearing. Some players that came before probably were given a much harder time than us now when showing interests outside of football.
The Future
HM: I think creating and playing football will always be a part of me. But how it will balance in my life later I don’t really know. If everything goes well in my career I still have a few years in front of me. A lot can happen in a few years. What I know is that creating and football will always be a part of my life, but how it will balance in my life later I don’t really know.
“I think creating and playing football will always be a part of me.”
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