Ajax strengthened itself on Wednesday with Calvin Bassey. The defender comes over from Rangers FC for at least 23 million euros and signs a contract until mid-2027 in Amsterdam.
The transfer of Bassey had been in the air for some time. He traveled to Austria on Wednesday to join the rest of the squad. For Rangers, the sale of Bassey is the biggest outbound transfer in club history. The sum of 23 million euros can increase to 26.5 million euros due to bonuses.
The 22-year-old Bassey was born in Italy, but plays for the Nigerian national team. The defender went through the youth academy of Leicester City, after which he made the switch to Rangers FC in 2020.
There he experienced his breakthrough last season with strong performances in the Europa League, where the Rangers of trainer Giovanni van Bronckhorst reached the final. In it, Eintracht Frankfurt won in a penalty shootout.
Bassey succeeds Martínez . who left for United
Ajax decided to work with Bassey because of Manchester United’s interest in Lisandro Martínez. The Argentinian was definitively recruited last weekend by ‘The Red Devils’, who pay an amount of at least 57.37 million euros for him.
Earlier in this transfer window, Ajax had already strengthened itself with Steven Bergwijn and Owen Wijndal, who came over from Tottenham Hotspur and AZ respectively. The national champion also had to put a (large) transfer fee on the table for them: Bergwijn cost 31.25 million euros and 10 million euros was paid for Wijndal.
Ajax will play its first official match of the new season on July 30, when PSV is the opponent in the battle for the Johan Cruijff Scale.