Calvin Bassey (, born 31 December 1999) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

or a centre-back for

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

club

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

and the Nigeria national team. Bassey is a product of

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

's youth system but didn't make a senior appearance for the club before joining Rangers on a free transfer in July 2020. He made 65 appearances over two seasons for Rangers and won the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

and the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

but has represented Nigeria at international level since making his debut in a

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualificationAlso the "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers". was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Parallel tourn ...

game against

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

in March 2022.

Club career

Leicester City

Bassey joined

at the age of 15 after a successful trial and progressed through the club's youth ranks, with regular appearances for the clubs' under-18 and under-23 sides.

Rangers

On 6 June 2020, Bassey signed a pre-contract with Rangers, with him due to officially join the club with the opening of the summer transfer window in July. On 9 August 2020, he made his professional debut for Rangers in a

match versus St Mirren as a substitute in a 3–0 win. Bassey was a key figure for Rangers during their run to the

2022 UEFA Europa League Final The 2022 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League, the 51st season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 13th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA E ...

, which they lost on

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

Ajax

In July 2022, it was confirmed by Rangers that Bassey had been sold to

for a club record fee of around £20 million. On his debut for the club in the

2022 Johan Cruyff Shield The 2022 Johan Cruyff Shield was the 26th edition of the Johan Cruyff Shield (Dutch: ''Johan Cruijff Schaal''), an annual Dutch football match played between the winners of the previous season's Eredivisie and KNVB Cup. The match was conteste ...

(Dutch Super Cup) on 31 July 2022, he received a direct red card 15 minutes after coming on as a substitute.

International career

Born in Italy, Bassey was eligible to play for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at international level. In 2021, Bassey committed his international future to Nigeria when he accepted a call up for their 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. He debuted with Nigeria in a 0–0

tie with

on 25 March 2022.

Personal life

Calvin Bassey is the brother of English rapper Y.cb, real name Matthew Bassey, who makes music under

UK drill UK drill is a subgenre of drill music and road rap that originated in the South London district of Brixton from 2012 onwards. Initially borrowing heavily from the style of Chicago drill music before creating its own unique sound, UK drill artist ...

group

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Rangers *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2021–22 *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

runner-up: 2021–22 Individual *UEFA Europa League Team of the Season: 2021–22

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bassey, Calvin 1999 births Living people People from Aosta Nigerian footballers Nigeria international footballers Italian footballers Association football defenders Scottish Professional Football League players Eredivisie players Leicester City F.C. players Rangers F.C. players AFC Ajax players Italian people of Nigerian descent Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom Italian sportspeople of African descent Footballers from Aosta Valley Nigerian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Nigerian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands