Christian Armel Bassila (born 5 October 1977) is a French former 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 played as a

defensive midfielder 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 boundari ...

or centre-back. He is the director of

INF Clairefontaine The INF Clairefontaine (""), INF, or simply Clairefontaine, is the national football centre that specialises in training French football players. The INF Clairefontaine is a section of the CNF Clairefontaine. The academy is one of thirteen ''� ...

's youth sector.

Club career

Born in Paris, Basilla started his career with the reigning Ligue 1 champions

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

in the 1996–97 season, before joining Rennes. Bassila rarely featured in the Rennes first team and was sent on a season-long loan to

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

in August 2000. However, he failed to cement a first-team place at the East London side either and the following season he joined Strasbourg on another season-long loan. After enjoying regular first-team action there he signed permanently and spent the next three seasons there. He was on the bench when Strasbourg won the 2005 Coupe de la Ligue Final. Bassila signed a two-year contract with newly promoted Premier League side Sunderland in the last week of the 2005 summer transfer window. After injuries caused him to fail to establish himself in a struggling Sunderland team that was eventually relegated, at the start of the 2006 season he activated a clause in his contract which allowed him to move to another club without a transfer fee being paid to Sunderland, and transferred to Greek side

Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. AEL Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ ΑΕΛ), also known by its full name Athlitiki Enosi Larissas ( el, Αθλητική Ένωση Λάρισας, translation=Athletic Union of Larissa), simply called AEL or Larissa, is a Greek professional footb ...

There he enjoyed more first-team football in a dynamic defensive role in the midfield. Bassila later transferred to Energie Cottbus and French Ligue 2 club Guingamp. Whilst at

Guingamp Guingamp (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. With a population of 6,895 as of 2017, Guingamp is one of the smallest towns in Europe to have a top-tier professional football team: En Avant Gui ...

, then in Ligue 2, Bassila captained his team in the

2009 Coupe de France Final The 2009 Coupe de France Final was the 91st final of France's most prestigious cup competition, the Coupe de France. The final was played at the Stade de France in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on 9 May 2009 and was contested between Rennes ...

in which they beat Rennes.

International career

In 2006, Bassila was called up to represent the

Congo national football team The Congo national football team ( French: '' Équipe de football du Congo'') represents the Republic of the Congo in men's association football and is governed by the Congolese Football Federation. They have never qualified for the World Cup, ...

by coach

Noel Tosi Noel or Noël may refer to: Christmas * , French for Christmas * Noel is another name for a Christmas carol Places * Noel, Missouri, United States, a city *Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, a community * 1563 Noël, an asteroid *Mount Noel, Britis ...

. Since Bassila had represented France at under-21 level, however, FIFA ruled against this as he should have applied for the change in his national status before 31 December 2005. In 2009, after a change in the FIFA rules concerning an age of limit to switch the national allegiance, Bassila was called again to the national squad together with

Lucien Aubey Lucien Yann Sherril Aubey (born 24 May 1984) is a Congolese former footballer who played as a defender. Career Aubey was born in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. He confirmed he wanted to leave Toulouse after eight years of service with th ...

Albin Ebondo Albin Ebondo (born 23 February 1984 in Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regi ...

and

Matt Moussilou Matt Devlin Moussilou Massamba (born 1 June 1982) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for FC Meyrin. Born in France, he has been capped by Congo at international level. Club career On 2 April 2005, he scored four goals for Li ...

, all newly eligible for the Congo national team.

Coaching career

In 2015, Bassila was hired as responsible for the development of the U12, U13 and U14 teams of Olympique Lyonnais, where he also functioned as a coach for several of the teams. In the summer 2018, he took charge of Lyon's B-team. In the summer 2019, Bassila joined

as director of the youth sector.

Honours

Lyon * UEFA Intertoto Cup:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

Strasbourg * Coupe de la Ligue: 2004-05 AEL *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most ...

: 2006–07 Guingamp *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

: 2008-09

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bassila, Christian 1977 births Living people Association football midfielders Republic of the Congo footballers French footballers French football managers Olympique Lyonnais players Stade Rennais F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players RC Strasbourg Alsace players Sunderland A.F.C. players Athlitiki Enosi Larissa F.C. players FC Energie Cottbus players En Avant Guingamp players Footballers from Paris Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Premier League players Super League Greece players French sportspeople of Republic of the Congo descent Bundesliga players French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Greece France under-21 international footballers French expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate sportspeople in Greece French expatriate sportspeople in Germany Black French sportspeople