Beni Tangama Baningime (born 9 September 1998) is a Congolese 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 central midfielder for Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian.

Early life

Baningime grew up in the Lemba district of

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

. He left at the age of 8, after his father, who was working as doctor in England, moved the family to Wigan.

Career

Everton

Baningime joined Everton at the age of nine. He is an academy graduate of the club and won honours such as 'The Premier League 2' and the

Dallas Cup The ''Dallas Cup'', is an annual international Football (soccer), football tournament for invited youth teams. The tournament was established i1980and is held in Dallas, Dallas, Texas, with FC Dallas serving as its host club. Venues used for the t ...

during his time in the

Everton F.C. Reserves and Academy Everton Under-23s compete in Premier League 2 and play their home matches at Haig Avenue in Southport. On occasion, they are permitted to play at Goodison Park. Both the Under-23 and Under-18 players have been based at their Finch Farm trainin ...

. Baningime also won the

Player of the Year award for the 2016/17 season. Baningime's senior debut came in a League Cup game against Chelsea in October 2017. Baningime made his Premier League debut as a half-time substitute against Leicester City on 29 October 2017. In January 2019, he was loaned to

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

until the end of the season. On 1 February 2021, Baningime joined Championship side Derby County on loan for the remainder of the 2020−21 season, reuniting with former Everton teammate Wayne Rooney who is manager. Two days later, he made his debut for the Rams as a substitute for Graeme Shinnie in a 0–3 away league defeat by Rotherham United.

Hearts

On 29 July 2021, Baningime joined

Scottish Professional Football League The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As ...

club Heart of Midlothian for a nominal fee and signed a three-year deal. Baningime played his debut for Hearts in a 2–1 home win against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

, playing the full match and receiving the Man of the Match award.

Personal life

Baningime's younger brother Divin Baningime is also a footballer, who most recently played for

. Baningime is a Christian. He prays before every match, and reads the Bible.

Career statistics

References

External links

Profile
at the Everton F.C. website * Living people 1998 births Footballers from Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo footballers Association football midfielders Everton F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Premier League players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players English footballers 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people Footballers from Wigan {{DRCongo-footy-bio-stub