Sébastien Bassong Nguena (born 9 July 1986 in Paris, France) is a French-born Cameroonian football defender who currently plays for Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League and the Cameroon national team.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Early career

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (September 2009)

Bassong is a graduate of the famous Clairefontaine youth academy. It has a high reputation of producing some of the world's most gifted players, including the likes of Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, William Gallas and Louis Saha. Bassong's first professional contract was with FC Metz where he made 87 appearances over three seasons.

[edit] Newcastle United

In July 2008 Bassong was offered a one week trial at Alfreton Town and made his debut in a pre-season friendly against Doncaster Rovers.^[2] On 30 July it was confirmed that Newcastle had agreed a fee of £500,000 with FC Metz for Bassong.^[3]

He made his professional debut for Newcastle on 26 August in a Football League Cup game away to Coventry City, before making his first league game for Newcastle away to Arsenal when he came on as a sub for José Enrique. He received his first red card for the club away to Wigan Athletic on 26 December. Another came on 16 May 2009 as part of 0–1 home defeat to Fulham in the penultimate game of the season. Bassong was named the Newcastle player of the season for the 08-09 season.^[4][5]

[edit] Tottenham Hotspur

Following Newcastle's relegation to the Football League Championship, Bassong expressed his desire to leave the club, with Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur linked with him. On 6 August 2009, it was confirmed that Spurs had won the race to sign the 23-year old and he completed an £8 million move to the North London club.^[6] Bassong scored on his debut for Tottenham in a 2-1 victory over Liverpool, heading in the winner from a free kick cross from team-mate Luka Modric in the 59th minute.^[7] As the season has went on Bassong has became a regular starter for Tottenham playing in all of the first 7 games of the Premier League season.

[edit] International career

Bassong played at centre back for the French under 21 national team, playing in two matches against the Netherlands and Japan in the summer of 2007 before joining Newcastle. On 25 May 2009 he was called up by the Cameroon national team for their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Morocco. He is eligible for Cameroon due to not having played in a competitive Under-21 match for the France team,^[8] and he made his debut for the national side on 12 August in a 2–0 away win to Austria.^[9]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Tottenham Hotspur Profile
• Sébastien Bassong career stats at Soccerbase
• Sébastien Bassong French league stats at lfp.fr (French)