Christian Bassila

Christian Bassila (born 5 October 1977 in Paris) is a former Congolese and France under-21 international footballer. He played as a defensive midfielder or centre-back.

Club career

Basilla started his career with the reigning Ligue 1 champions Lyon 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 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.

Bassila signed a two-year contract with newly promoted Premiership 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 AEL 1964 FC. 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, then in Ligue 2, Bassila captained his team in the 2009 Coupe de France Final in which they beat Rennes.

International career

In 2006, Bassila was called up to represent the Congo national football team by coach Noel Tosi. 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, Albin Ebondo and Matt Moussilou, all newly eligible for the Congo national team.