Festus Baise (; born 11 April 1980) is a former Nigerian-born Hong Kong 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 played as a centre back.

Club career

Early career

Festus Baise was born in Lagos, Nigeria and was advised to go to Hong Kong and have tryouts with top tier clubs Happy Valley and Sun Hei. He would receive an offer from second tier club Mutual where he started his football career in the 2004–05 league season. Baise would join top tier club

South China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

half way through the season and played in six games, scoring one goal.

Citizen

On 16 December 2011, Baise scored an own goal, described as a reverse scorpion kick, past his goalkeeper

Tse Tak Him Tse Tak Him (; born 10 February 1985 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong professional footballer who currently plays as a goalkeeper for Hong Kong Premier League club Southern. Club career Citizen During the 2010–11 Hong Kong Senior Challenge ...

in a 3–2 win over Sun Hei in the league match. It was selected as the 5th best own goal of all time by the

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

's Steve Wilson. On 21 March 2012, Baise struck a last-minute winner as Citizen edged out Myanmar's

Yangon United Yangon United Football Club ( my, ရန်ကုန် ယူနိုက်တက် ဘောလုံးအသင်း ) is a Burmese football club, based at Yangon United Sports Complex, in Yangon, Myanmar. Owned by Tay Za, a prominent Burme ...

2–1 at Mongkok Stadium to record a first win of the

2012 AFC Cup The 2012 AFC Cup was the ninth edition of the AFC Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "developing countries" in Asia. Al-Kuwait from Kuwait won their second AFC Cup title in four year ...

campaign in Group G.

Guizhou Hengfeng

On 13 December 2015, Chinese club

Guizhou Hengfeng Guizhou FC (; ) was a professional Chinese football club. The team was based in Guiyang, Guizhou and their home stadium was the 51,636 seater Guiyang Olympic Sports Center. Their majority shareholders were Hengfeng Real Estate, Guizhou Zhicheng ...

signed Baise from Eastern, citing his performances against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in two matches during

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

. He arrived at the club on 1 January 2016. On 1 March 2018, Guizhou announced that Baise had signed a new contract through the end of 2019. He left the club after his contract expired.

International career

Baise was born in Nigeria, and is of Ghanaian descent. In December 2012, Baise confirmed that he had applied to the Hong Kong Immigration Department for naturalisation as a Chinese citizen. He was granted the Hong Kong SAR Passport on 7 March 2015 and Baise made his international debut for Hong Kong against Guam on 28 March 2015.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Hong Kong's goal tally first.''

Personal life

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Baise is of Ghanaian descent. In December 2012, Baise confirmed that he had applied to the Hong Kong Immigration Department for naturalisation as a Chinese citizen. He was granted a

Hong Kong SAR passport The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport is a passport issued only to permanent residents of Hong Kong who also hold Chinese citizenship. Note that: The passport is referred to both as the HKSAR Passport and the Hong Kong Specia ...

on 7 March 2015. His brother, Henry Baise Okwara (or 亨利, born Apr 16, 1992), is also a footballer. He is a Ghanaian citizen who came to Hong Kong with him and was granted a

. On 1 January 2012, he transferred from

Wing Yee Wing Yee Football Team (), currently known as Wing Yee Property for sponsorship reasons, is a Hong Kong football club which currently competes in the Hong Kong First Division. History Wing Yee joined the Hong Kong Third Division "A" League in 20 ...

Citizen Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

in the

Hong Kong First Division The Hong Kong First Division League () is the second-highest division in the Hong Kong football league system. Established in 1908, it is the third oldest in Asia. The league was formerly the highest division in Hong Kong until the formation o ...

, and has been at the club ever since. He is a right-footed

centre-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 ...

who can also play as a defensive midfielder, and he is tall.

Honours

Club

;

* Hong Kong Senior Shield:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

; Eastern * Hong Kong Premier League: 2015–16

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baise, Festus 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Lagos Hong Kong footballers Hong Kong international footballers Hong Kong expatriate footballers Nigerian footballers Hong Kong people of Ghanaian descent Hong Kong people of Nigerian descent Nigerian people of Ghanaian descent Nigerian emigrants to Hong Kong Association football central defenders South China AA players Citizen AA players Eastern Sports Club footballers Guizhou F.C. players Hong Kong First Division League players Hong Kong Premier League players China League One players Chinese Super League players Hong Kong expatriates in China Expatriate footballers in China Naturalized footballers of Hong Kong Hong Kong League XI representative players