Steven Baseya

In the summer of 2023, Baseya did something few teenagers at AS Nancy Lorraine do: he turned down the first professional contract the club offered him and walked away a free agent. He had made his senior debut for Nancy that January, in a 1-1 draw with Le Puy Foot 43 Auvergne, after a season with the reserves in Championnat National 2 — 24 appearances and one goal. Within weeks of leaving he had signed elsewhere.

That elsewhere was Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace, where the contract, dated 23 June 2023, ran to June 2026. Most of the two years that followed were spent with the reserve side, and his senior football in Alsace amounted to two Ligue 1 appearances.

The move to Alverca came in July 2025, a permanent transfer for €400,000, and by May 2026 he had made 12 appearances for the Portuguese club.

The best of his year came in a France shirt. Baseya, born in Longjumeau and of Congolese descent, has worked his way up the French youth ladder — a cap at U17, one at U18, five at U19 — and by 2024 he was a fixture in the U20 side, where he has 11 caps. With that squad he won the 2025 Maurice Revello Tournament, beating Mali in the final.

His first football was played close to home, at JS Longjumelloise and then Massy 91 FC, before Nancy took him on at fifteen. He holds dual citizenship with DR Congo but has committed to France, and has yet to be capped at senior level by either.