Champions League: Calvin Bassey hearing UCL anthem for first time is heartwarming

Calvin Bassey made the switch from Rangers to Ajax in the summer, leaving the Scottish side for a new challenge in Europe, with the Amsterdam club picking him up and giving him a Champions League debut.

The 22 year-old would have been playing in the Champions League for the first time this season regardless, with the ‘Gers qualifying for the tournament along with Celtic from the Scottish Premiership.

Instead, the Nigerian defender made his debut in the competition for Ajax, ironically taking on his former club at the Johan Cruyff Arena. He was part of a 4-0 win, putting in a solid performance on the biggest club stage of all.

He suffered heartbreak with Rangers last season in Europe, losing the Europa League final to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties, making the despair even more unbearable as the ‘lottery’ confirmed their destiny on the night.

Regardless of where they’re from, most footballers dream about playing in the Champions League, with the competition the benchmark for club football and considerably the most prestigious table to sit at when it comes down to it.

Before any fixture in the Champions League, the players enter the pitch and line-up as normal, before standing there with the iconic anthem for the tournament playing around the stadium.

The track was written by English composer Tony Britten in 1992 and he adopted it from George Frideric Handel’s song, Zadok the Priest.

When you hear that as a player for the first time, you know you’ve made the biggest stage of all and obviously dream of hearing it on the pitch a plethora of times, not just the once.

Ajax shared a video of Bassey pre-match, hearing the renowned anthem for the first time as a player and it clearly meant so much to the Nigerian man.

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