Christian Bassila

Christian Bassila

Personal information
Full name	Christian Bassila
Date of birth	(1977-10-05) 5 October 1977
Place of birth	Paris, France
Height
Position(s)	Defensive midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1996–1999	Lyon	44	(2)
1999–2002	Rennes	24	(1)
2000–2001	→ West Ham United (loan)	3	(0)
2001–2002	→ Strasbourg (loan)	32	(3)
2002–2005	Strasbourg	89	(7)
2005–2006	Sunderland	13	(0)
2006–2007	AEL 1964	27	(2)
2007–2008	Energie Cottbus	23	(3)
2008–2011	Guingamp	62	(2)
Total		317	(20)
International career
	France U21
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 19 April 2010

Christian Bassila (born 5 October 1977 in Paris) is a former 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. In 2009 he captained Guingamp to victory in the French Cup when they beat his former club Rennes 2–1 in the first ever all-Breton final.

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.

External links

• Christian Bassila career statistics at Soccerbase
• Christian Bassila career stats at Yahoo! Sport
• Christian Bassila – French League Stats at LFP.fr (French)

Preceded by Corentin Martins

RC Strasbourg Captain 2004 – September 2004

Succeeded by Cédric Kanté