Christian Bassila

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christian Bassila (born 5 October 1977 in Paris) is a former France under-21 international footballer.

He prefers to play in the defensive midfield position and started his career with the present French Ligue 1 Champions Lyon in the 96-97 season. Bassila joined West Ham in August 2000 on a season-long loan deal, moving from French outfit Rennes. After an indifferent 2000-01 season on loan with West Ham United where he rarely featured, he moved on to French league outfit Strasbourg where he enjoyed regular first team football till the 2004-2005 season.

Bassila was signed on a two year contract by, the now Championship, side Sunderland on the last week of the 2005 transfer window. By the start of the 2006 season however Basilla activated a free transfer clause in his contract which allowed him to move to another club of his choice, without a transfer fee being paid to Sunderland. His move to Greek side Larisa (now named AEL 1964) came after a season of frequent injury and unimpressive form in which Sunderland were relegated from the Premiership.

In 2006 he was called up to represent the national team of the Republic of the Congo 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 December 31, 2005. ^[1]