The estranged father of Nigeria and Fulham defender Calvin Bassey has made a fresh, emotional plea to be reunited with his children, claiming he has been shut out of their lives for nearly two decades.
Kingsley Ughelumba, speaking in a viral interview, said he has not seen his sons for over 18 years, blaming a long-running rift with their mother for the painful separation.
“I’m dying in silence,” the heartbroken father said, insisting he has never had issues with his children and only wants a chance to reconnect.
Ughelumba revealed that his first three sons — Elvis, Mathew and Calvin — were born in Italy, while the youngest, Michael, was born in Ireland. The family later lived together briefly in London before marital problems tore them apart.
“We had husband-and-wife arguments. I went to work and before I came back, she had left with the children,” he claimed.
According to him, contact was only re-established briefly in 2017 when the children needed Nigerian passports — a period he says gave him false hope.
“She muted me after Calvin signed for a football club,” he alleged.
Bassey, 26, has risen rapidly in football, moving from Leicester City’s academy to Rangers, then sealing big-money transfers to Ajax and later Fulham, while becoming a regular for the Super Eagles.
The defender has openly credited his mother for his success and adopted her surname professionally, distancing himself from his father’s name, Ughelumba, which he used earlier in his career.
“He’s just not in my life. Since I was six, it has been mum and us boys,” Bassey previously said, explaining why he chose to wear his mother’s name on his shirt.
Ughelumba, however, claimed he made several desperate attempts to reconnect — including a dramatic trip during the COVID lockdown when Calvin was playing for Leicester City.
“I drove from London to Leicester just to see my son. When the club called him using his childhood nickname, ‘Biggy’, he responded immediately,” he said.
But he alleged the meeting quickly soured after Bassey contacted 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,” Ughelumba recalled.
Still clinging to hope, the father said he travelled to Abidjan during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in another failed bid to see his son, before heading to Abuja — again without success.
“I have no problem with my children,” he said. “Even if I am a devil, I cannot be a devil where my children are.”
As of publication, Calvin Bassey has not publicly responded to his father’s latest emotional claims.
