FULHAM manager Marco Silva has showered high praise on Calvin Bassey while admitting that he will miss the Super Eagles defender during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
Bassey and his Fulham colleague Alex Iwobi are in Nigeria’s 2023 AFCON squad and made their final appearance for the club in Sunday’s 2-1 English Premier League victory over Arsenal before leaving for the tournament, which is scheduled for January 13 to February 11 in Cote d’Ivoire.
Centre-back Bassey was voted as the man of the match after the big win over title-chasing Arsenal, and Silva acknowledged the Nigeria international’s impact and growth.
“What a performance. What a performance. It’s his birthday and it was a nice way to celebrate, but what a performance from him,” Silva told the Fulham website.
“He’s really growing and showing that we took the right decision when we signed a player like him, a player with great, great skills to be a top central defender in the future.
“Right now, he is a very good central defender. I really believe that if he keeps improving, understanding what we want from the game, he is going to be a very, very good level central defender for many years in this football club.
“He’s strong, he’s quick, he has quality on the ball, always has the right mindset to learn, to listen, to improve every single day. I’m really pleased for him.
“Unfortunately, we are going to lose him for a long time now because he’s going to the Africa Cup of Nations.”
In the man of the match poll after the victory over Arsenal, Fulham fans gave Basey 34.4% of the votes, ahead of Raúl Jimenez (20.8%), Tom Cairney (17.4%) and Antonee Robinson (12.9%).
The Super Eagles are in Group A for the 2023 AFCON, where they will face hosts Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
