Ajax chief compares Lisandro Martinez replacement to Liverpool and Manchester Utd legends

Ajax technical manager Gerry Hamstra has compared new signing Calvin Bassey to legendary Liverpool and Manchester United defenders Virgil van Dijk and Jaap Stam.

Bassey signed for Ajax on a five-year contract from Rangers on Wednesday in a deal worth £19.6million.

The 22-year-old has been brought in as a replacement for Lisandro Martinez who is set to join United for around £47m plus add-ons.

Primarily a left-back, Bassey can also play at centre-back and was a key member of the Rangers side that reached the final of the Europa League last season, even being named in the competition’s Team of the Season.

The Nigerian international’s rise has been rapid, moving to Ajax just two years after he left Leicester’s academy for the Ibrox, and Hamstra is convinced that the Eredivise champions have signed a world-class star.

In an interview with Dutch newspaper Het Parool, he said: ‘With Calvin Bassey, we found his [Martinez’s] replacement.

‘He is an open personality, who only entered professional football relatively late. A boy who really fought his way up, a bit comparable to Jaap Stam and Virgil van Dijk.

‘We are therefore looking very specifically at its potential. That certainly counts in his case.

‘Of course, we are looking at a player who can be of immediate value in the Champions League, but it is also a boy who ended up in professional football late and who has made great strides in several positions in a short time.

‘He also received offers from the middle bracket in England, but he said very specifically: I want to go to Ajax. With the perspective that players have with us and of which Lisandro Martinez is again a concrete example: two or three years and then on to the top of the Premier League.’

Bassey had attracted