Kingsley Ughelumba,
Father of Super Eagles defender Calvin Bassey, has once again appealed for help to reunite with his four children revealing he has been separated from them for more than 18 years.
Speaking in an emotional viral interview, Ughelumba said he has been “dying in silence” since losing contact with his children following a marital rift with their mother, Ebere Bassey.
The Anambra State native, from Ihiala Local Government Area, explained that his first three sons — Elvis, Mathew and Calvin — were born in Italy, while his youngest, Michael, was born in Ireland. The family later lived briefly in London before their marriage collapsed.
“We had husband-and-wife arguments. I went to work and before I returned, she had left with the children,” Ughelumba said.
“She only reached out when my children needed Nigerian passports. I sent all my documents and bought their flight tickets. When they stayed with me then, I never told them their mum did anything to me. But she has muted me since Calvin signed for a football club.”
Ughelumba first spoke publicly about the estrangement two years ago but has now renewed his plea, saying all efforts to reconnect have failed.
Calvin Bassey, who came through Leicester City’s youth system, rose to prominence at Rangers, making 65 appearances over two seasons and winning both the Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup. He later joined Ajax for a then-record €23 million fee before signing for Fulham in the previous year’s for €22 million.
The 26-year-old defender made his Nigeria debut last four years during the World Cup playoff against Ghana and has since earned 43 caps, featuring prominently at the last two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.
Before breaking into senior football, Bassey was listed under his father’s surname, Ughelumba, but later adopted his mother’s name, publicly crediting her for supporting his career.
“He’s just not in my life — we lived with him, but that was when I was really young,” Bassey once said.
“Since I was six, it has been mum and us boys. I knew that if I got the chance to put my name on the back of a shirt, I wanted it to be my mum’s name — my way of saying thank you.”
Ughelumba recalled a heartbreaking attempt to reconnect during the COVID-19 period, when he travelled from London to Leicester while Calvin was still with Leicester City.
“I wasn’t looking for him because he was a footballer; I wanted to see my first son,” he said.
“The club welcomed me and called him. There was a name I used to call him when he was small — ‘Biggy’. When they called him that, he responded immediately.”
He said Calvin initially shared an address but later changed his attitude after contacting his mother.
“He told me to say whatever I wanted to say and leave. He said he didn’t want to see me again and drove off.”
The distraught father also revealed travelling from Italy to Abidjan during last year’s Africa Cup of Nations in another attempt to reconnect.
“During Nigeria versus Angola, a journalist helped link me with the federation. They gave me tickets and I watched the match. After that, I went to Abuja to try again, but I still didn’t see him,” Ughelumba said.
“Since then, I have been dying in silence. I don’t have any problems with my children — it’s just their mum that made me feel bad. Even if I am a devil, I can’t be a devil where my children are.”
As of the time of filing this report, the Fulham defender had yet to respond to his father’s claims.
