Oliver Jacob Bassett (born 6 March 1998) is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

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 ...

player who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for Canadian club

Atlético Ottawa Atlético Ottawa is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League and plays its home games at TD Place Stadium, TD Place. The team was founded in 2020 by Spa ...

Club career

Early career

Born in

Packington Packington is a village and civil parish in the district of North West Leicestershire.OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) : It is situated close to the A42 road and the towns of Ashby de la Zouch and Measham. The population o ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, Bassett started his football career as a youngster in the

Aston Villa Academy The Aston Villa Under-21s, formerly known as Aston Villa Reserves and Aston Villa Under-23s, are the most senior youth development team of Aston Villa and compete in Premier League 2 (Division 2) of the Professional Development League, the Pr ...

and as a teenager played

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

before signing a scholarship at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in the summer of 2014.

Yeovil Town

On 19 September 2015, Bassett made his

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

debut for

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

in a 1–0 victory against

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team co ...

, at the age of just 17 years, 6 months and 13 days he broke the record for the youngest Yeovil player in the Football League. On 3 December 2015, Bassett was awarded his first professional contract with Yeovil Town, committing him to the club until June 2017. On 13 September 2016, Bassett joined

Southern League Premier Division The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English foot ...

side

Dorchester Town Dorchester Town Football Club are a semi-professional football club, based in Dorchester, Dorset, England. They currently play in the . The club is affiliated to the Dorset County Football Association and is a FA chartered Standard club. They ...

on an initial one-month loan deal. Bassett made his debut the following day as a second-half substitute in Dorchester's 4–0 victory against Frome Town, with Bassett providing the assist for the fourth goal. Having made four appearances in his first loan spell with Dorchester, Bassett returned on loan to the Southern League club on 28 October 2016. On 3 February 2017, Bassett joined Dorchester for a third loan spell. At the end of the 2016–17 season, Bassett was released by Yeovil having only made two appearances for the club.

Coalville Town

On 9 August 2017, Bassett signed for

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

Premier Division club Coalville Town on a one-year contract.

Waitakere United

Following his release from Coalville, Bassett secured a contract with

New Zealand Football Championship The New Zealand Football Championship ( mi, Te Whakataetae Whutupaoro a Aotearoa) was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a m ...

side

Waitakere United Waitakere United was a football club based in Waitakere City, New Zealand. They were one of the franchises in the ISPS Handa Premiership. They played their home games at Fred Taylor Park in Kumeu and The Trusts Arena. History Waitakere United ...

Pacific FC

Following a stint with

Nuneaton Borough Nuneaton Borough Football Club is an English football club that is based in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The men's 1st team competes in the , the seventh tier of English football. In 1889, Nuneaton St. Nicholas FC was the first team in Nuneaton t ...

, Bassett signed with

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; french: Première ligue canadienne, links=no) is a professional men's Association football, soccer league in Canada. At the top of the Canadian soccer league system, it is the country's primary nationa ...

side

Pacific FC Pacific Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Greater Victoria, British Columbia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League, playing home matches at Starlight Stadium located in Langford. History On May 5, 201 ...

on 29 April 2021. In his season with the Tridents, Bassett contributed with 2 goals and 3 assists as Pacific won the league. After a strong start to the season, Bassett started to see his minutes decrease as the season progressed, and did not play a single minute in the playoffs. Despite interest from the club to trigger his club option for next season, Bassett preferred to move on and find an opportunity to play more regular minutes elsewhere. In January 2022, Pacific confirmed that Bassett had left the club.

Atlético Ottawa

On 26 January 2022, Bassett switched to

side

signing a two-year contract with an option for a third year. On Jun 9, 2022, capping off a hot start to the season, Bassett was named the CPL's Player of the Month for the month of May 2022. On October 28, 2022, he was awarded the CPL’s Player of the Year and Player’s Player of the Year awards.

International career

In August 2016, Bassett was called up to the Northern Ireland under-19 side for a training camp. Bassett did enough to impress the Northern Ireland coaching staff to receive a call-up for their

2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification The 2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Georgia in the 2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final t ...

matches in October 2016. On 6 October 2016, Bassett made his debut for Northern Ireland under-19s against

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

in a 1–0 defeat.

Career statistics

Honours

Pacific FC *

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 ...

Atlético Ottawa *

**Regular Season:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

**CCSG Golden Scarf: 2022 **Player of the Year Award: 2022 **Player’s Player of the Year Award: 2022

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bassett, Ollie 1998 births Living people Association football midfielders English footballers Association footballers from Northern Ireland People from North West Leicestershire District English expatriate footballers Expatriate association footballers from Northern Ireland Expatriate association footballers in New Zealand English expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Expatriate sportspeople from Northern Ireland in New Zealand Expatriate soccer players in Canada English expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate sportspeople from Northern Ireland in Canada Yeovil Town F.C. players Dorchester Town F.C. players Coalville Town F.C. players Gresley F.C. players Waitakere United players Team Wellington players Nuneaton Borough F.C. players Pacific FC players Atlético Ottawa players English Football League players Southern Football League players Northern Premier League players New Zealand Football Championship players Northern Ireland youth international footballers