New Hearts midfielder Beni Baningime says he’ll compare ‘myself to myself’ after ending his stay with Everton.
The new Tynecastle recruit has impressed since completing a permanent transfer to the Scottish Premiership earlier this month. Baningime rose through the ranks at Everton and made a handful of appearances in the English Premier League, but injury disrupted his progress.
Now contracted to Hearts until 2024, the former Everton midfielder wants to start building towards a long career in football (SM): “I’m not Idrissa Gueye and I’m not Kante. I just compare myself to myself now. It’s easy to be compared to all of these names but I believe that if I work hard enough, I can just be me.
“I want to be able to look back at the end of my career and say that I played at the top for a long time. If I do, it will have had nothing to do with comparisons to anyone. I’m level-headed and don’t get too excited. That’s probably why I’m ok with everything that happened at Everton.
“If I had bought into all that and thought: ‘ Yeah, I’m the guy’, maybe I’d have come to Hearts and thought: ‘ What am I doing here?’ But I don’t think like that at all. I’m not big on social media. I like to keep my life private. I know it’s a little bit boring but it’s just the way I am now. I’m a religious person and that came from my parents.
“At Everton I was maybe living the life a bit with flashy cars and the rest, as you can imagine. But then one day I decided that I didn’t like how I was living. I work as hard as I can at football but as soon as I’m away, I forget about it. That’s how I live my life.
“Everton gave me a chance to carry on my career. I’m thankful to them for that. Maybe people would think I’m bitter but I was there for 13 years and I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for them.”
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