Christian Mougang Bassogog (born 18 October 1995) is a Cameroonian 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 le ...

who plays for

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

club

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua F.C. () is a Chinese professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under license from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The term ''shen hua'' literally translates as "the Flower of Shanghai" in ...

and the Cameroon national team as a

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Club career

Rainbow FC

Bassogog began his career in his native Cameroon at second division side Rainbow FC, graduating from the youth system.

Wilmington Hammerheads

On 29 April 2015, Bassogog joined the

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...

club

Wilmington Hammerheads Wilmington Hammerheads FC was a semi-professional American soccer team based in Wilmington, North Carolina. Founded in 1996, the team last competed in the Premier Development League, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid in 2017. History ...

, in the United States. Christian played 16 games and made two assists for the American club before he moved to the Danish club AaB. On 28 August, he signed a four-year contract with his new club.

AaB

On 29 September 2015, Bassogog got his debut for his new club AaB in the

Danish Cup The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will quali ...

against the

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

-located team Lystrup IF. He came on the pitch in the second half with a half hour left. On 11 February 2016, in the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

winter break, Bassogog was chosen to play the forward-position in a friendly match against

Sioni Bolnisi FC Sioni is a Georgian football club based in Bolnisi. Following the 2022 season, they were relegated to Erovnuli Liga Liga 2, the second tier of Georgian league system. The team has once claimed the national league champion's title. Sioni pla ...

from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. He scored two goals in the match, and former head coach Lars Søndergaard talked afterwards about, that Bassogog in the future could be used on the forward-position instead of the wing. On 29 February 2016, he got his debut in the Danish Superliga against

FC Midtjylland FC Midtjylland (, "Central Jutland") is a Danish professional football club based in Herning and Ikast in the western part of Jutland. The club is the result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad. Midtjylland competes in the Danish Su ...

. He came on the pitch with 10 minutes left. Following a string of impressive performances for

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

at the

2017 Africa Cup of Nations The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2017 or CAN 2017), known as the Total 2017 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champions ...

, AaB sporting director Allan Gaarde commented that Bassogog was the subject of multiple queries regarding potential moves away from AaB in the 2017 January transfer window.

Henan Jianye

On 19 February 2017, AaB officially announced the departure of Bassogog for a reported fee of 45 million Danish kroner (approx. £5 million) to join the Chinese side Henan Jianye FC. This was a recording-breaking transfer fee for AaB, surpassing that of

Jesper Grønkjær Jesper Grønkjær (; born 12 August 1977) is a Danish former professional footballer. A pacey winger, Grønkjær played primarily on the right or left wing, or as a second striker. He played a total 400 league games for a number of European cl ...

when he signed for the Dutch club

Ajax Amsterdam Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

for £3.5 million in October 1997. On 31 July 2020, Bassogog tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in Guangzhou.

Shanghai Shenhua

On 26 February 2021, Bassogog signed with Chinese Super League side

International career

Christian Bassogog had a stellar Africa Cup of Nations 2018, scoring once en route to their victory, and was named as the Best Player at AFCON 2017. On November 11, 2022, Bassogog was selected for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

. On November 27, 2022, Bassogog received a

yellow card Yellow card may refer to: * Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas * Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band * Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative conce ...

from the referee who deemed his celebration for a goal too excessive. He was not on the field that time.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Cameroon's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bassogog goal.''

Honours

Cameroon *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, third place:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Individual * Best player of the Africa Cup of Nations: 2017 * CAF Team of the Tournament: 2017

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bassogog, Christian 1995 births Living people Cameroonian men's footballers Cameroonian expatriate men's footballers Wilmington Hammerheads FC players USL Championship players AaB Fodbold players Henan F.C. players Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Danish Superliga players Chinese Super League players Men's association football midfielders Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in China Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in China Cameroon men's international footballers 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Africa Cup of Nations-winning players Footballers from Douala