A section of the Ajax fanbase has showered praises on Calvin Bassey following the Super Eagles left-back’s brilliant debut in the Eredivisie on Sunday.
Bassey finally featured in his first Eredivisie match since joining Ajax, playing from start to finish in the narrow 1-0 win at Sparta Rotterdam.
The Nigerian defender had missed the champions’ first two league games due to suspension.
One Twitter user, Evinbikee, noted that Bassey, with his quality, appears destined to play for Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, two of the world’s biggest clubs.
He tweeted: “Bassey is definitely moving to Bayern Munich or Real Madrid from Ajax. Boy is good with the ball on his feet as a central defender. Wow. Future African best defender.”
Another club support page, Ajax Analytics, describes the variety in Bassey’s game this way: “The importance of Calvin Bassey in this team can already be seen today. He brings the physical power, speed and aerial ability which Ajax needed in central defence after Lisandro Martínez left.”
It would be recalled that Bassey was red-carded in the Johan Cruyff Shield defeat to rivals PSV Eindhoven, minutes into his competition now for Ajax.
But Ajax manager Alfred Schreuder threw Bassey right back into the mix of things at the Sparta-Stadion Het Kasteel in Rotterdam, starting the youngster at centre-back. At the same time, ex-Manchester United man Daley Blind moved to left-back.
Sparta frustrated the reigning kings for a large portion, but Steven Bergwijn’s 37th-minute strike was enough to hand the visitors all three points.
Bassey’s classy and disciplined performance was one of the highlights of the matchday three clash.