AFCON 2025: Nigeria Super Eagles Vs Morocco semi final game: Crunchy Calvin Bassey being pulled by Diaz
From our Sports desk, Lagos
Calvin Bassey was only six years old when his father abandoned his mum and his three other brothers in Italy where he was born.
His mother had to move to the UK with her four sons settling in one of the roughest parts of London called “Newham”, a place Bassey said at the time was like a “War Zone”.
Kids were being stabbed and killed due to gang violence and Bassey lost two of his mates that period with one shot dead, it was a “deadly” area at the time.
There were only two ways to survive; either you end up in a gang or you play football, and Calvin Bassey chose to play the beautiful game, football but things only got worse.
As a teenager, no club wanted him, he went to trials at Crystal Palace, West Ham United, Wolves, Leyton Orient, Charlton Athletic and Barnet, and all these clubs said NO to him.
Leyton Orient and Charlton Athletic rejected him twice but the rejection of Charlton was the one that hit him the most as he spent time doing trials at the club not just once but twice and both times the club rejected him.
He felt if a club could reject me twice, it means he wasn’t really good enough.
He thought of giving up on his dream of playing football professionally but decided to give it one final push.
He said to himself, “I’m going all out, and if I don’t get a club, I’m quitting” and that was when he got a “Do-or-die” trial at Leicester City.
He was playing as a Left Back and 13 left-backs had already done trials before him and got rejected, so he felt he stood no chance at all.
Because he felt he stood no chance, he just played with freedom and had fun and that was what got him signed to Leicester City at the age of 15 years.
Now imagine the mental strength of a teenager that got rejected by six clubs and yet kept going, that’s an elite mentality.
He couldn’t believe he was signed and went late to school that morning. His teachers got angry asking him why he was late, he told them he was getting signed by Leicester, they doubted him until he showed them pictures and they started clapping for him.
He moved from Leicester City’s Under 18 to the Under 23’s but couldn’t break into the first team but Steven Gerrard signed him for Rangers in 2020.
Within five months of signing his first professional contract, he moved his mum and brothers out of Newham.
His Rangers career didn’t start off well as he wasn’t a regular under Gerard but like always he kept working hard.
When Gerrard left for Aston Villa and Giovani took over, he started playing Bassey moving him from left back to Centre back and he became one of the best young defenders in Europe.
He became Rangers most expensive sale when they sold him to European giants, Ajax for a club record fee of £20 million in 2022 just after two years.
He got to Ajax and in his first match got a direct red card after coming on for just 15 minutes.
He didn’t have the best time in Ajax as he played 25 games for the club and they still managed to sell him to Fulham for the same amount they bought him, £20 million.
In Fulham, he has become one of the key players and defenders for Silva and he’s proving why he’s elite every single game.
At the just concluded Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, unarguably, Bassey posted a stand up performance in the heart of the Super Eagles defence in all the games he was featured earning the name; ‘The Rock‘ from the team’s fans across the world.
Calvin Bassey’s story remains one of inspiration that it is never over, until it is really over and the lesson: “No Gree For Anybody” when it comes to your destiny!!!
Credit: SportsDokita
