Benjamin George Cabango (born 30 May 2000) is a Welsh professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a defender for club

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

and the Wales national team.

Early life

Cabango was born in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

to an Angolan father and a Welsh mother. He has a younger brother named

Theo Theo is a given name and a hypocorism. Greek origin Many names beginning with the root "Theo-" derive from the Ancient Greek word ''theos'' (''θεός''), which means god, for example: *Feminine names: Thea, Theodora, Theodosia, Theophania, ...

who plays rugby union for

. He attended

Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr is a Welsh-medium comprehensive secondary school in Cardiff. It opened in September 1998 as the second school of its kind in Cardiff. Its buildings had formerly belonged to Waterhall Secondary Modern School and mo ...

, a Welsh language comprehensive school.

Club career

Cabango began his career as a youth player with local amateur side Maindy Corries, where his father Paolo was a coach, before joining the youth academy at Newport County, where he played from under-13 to under-15 levels. He moved to the academy at

where he captained the under-19 side to win the

FAW Welsh Youth Cup The FAW Welsh Youth Cup is a competition contested by teams affiliated to the Football Association of Wales The Football Association of Wales (FAW; cy, Cymdeithas Bêl-droed Cymru) is the Governing bodies of sports in Wales, governing body o ...

in 2018 and helped the under-23 side reach the final of the Premier League Cup. In June 2018, Cabango signed for reigning

Welsh Premier League The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. Prior to 20 ...

champions

The New Saints The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, also known as The New Saints ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed y Seintiau Newydd) or TNS, are a professional football club that currently play in the Cymru Premier. They are the most successfu ...

on a six-month loan deal. He made his senior debut for the side in a 5–0 defeat to Macedonian side

KF Shkëndija Klubi i Futbollit Shkëndija () commonly known as Shkëndija, is a football club based in Tetovo, North Macedonia. Their home stadium is Ecolog Arena and they currently play in the Macedonian First League. In the 2010–11 season of the Macedo ...

in the first leg of the first qualifying round of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. In the return leg, Cabango scored his first senior goal as The New Saints won 4–0 but were eliminated on aggregate. On 13 August 2019, he made his professional debut for Swansea in a 3–1 victory over

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

in the first round of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. He made his league debut as a substitute against

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...

on 26 November 2019.

International career

Cabango made his senior Wales international debut as a second-half substitute during the team's

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

League B League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

match against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

on 3 September 2020, which Wales won 1–0. In May 2021 he was selected for the Wales squad for the delayed

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

tournament. In November 2022 he was named in the Wales squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

Personal life

Ben Cabango is the elder brother of professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player

Theo Cabango Theo Cabango is a Welsh rugby union player who plays as a wing for United Rugby Championship side Cardiff Rugby. Club career Cabango was named in the Cardiff academy squad for the 2021–22 season. He made his debut for Cardiff in the first rou ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* 2000 births Living people Footballers from Cardiff Men's association football defenders Welsh men's footballers Wales men's youth international footballers Welsh people of Angolan descent Newport County A.F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players The New Saints F.C. players Cymru Premier players English Football League players Wales men's under-21 international footballers Wales men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players {{Wales-footy-defender-stub