Scottish Cup semi-final: Hearts v Aberdeen
Venue: Hampden Park, Glasgow Date: Saturday 19 April Time: 12:30 BST
Coverage: Watch live on BBC One Scotland, BBC iPlayer or the BBC Sport website & app; listen on BBC Sounds or BBC Radio Scotland
When Hearts striker Elton Kabangu talks about things being in the balance and the chances of success rated at 50-50, the presumption might be he is talking about Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen, when he’s actually talking about his chances of surviving a lung infection during Covid times.
Three years ago life was decent for the Belgian of Congolese descent. He was a Willem II striker back then. Mid-20s, a few goals in the bank in the Netherlands, a reputation building slowly. Then, bang.
Sense of smell, gone. Then, muscle pains. Then, exhaustion. Then, blood coughed up. Then, intensive care. He remembers his mother’s presence looking in at him through the window and then nothing.
“I was in a coma for 16 days,” he says. “I had an infection on my lungs so, yeah, 16 days. I just remember arriving at the hospital and being really sick and then I woke up and I was at zero. I had to try to fight back from the most difficult time of my life.
“It’s not nice to think about everything, but I’ll share my story. I’m not ashamed. It was a battle for me, but I’m a believer in Jesus, so I know it’s part of the plan. I accepted it. I survived it. I came back and that’s the most important thing for me.”
Kabangu is 27 and his time in football has been a character test, from FC Eindhoven, to Willem II, to Union Saint-Gilloise and now to Hearts on loan, brought in when his name showed up well in the data of the club partner, Jamestown Analytics.
Eight goals in 14 games. Not bad, but could be more, he says. Two against Brechin, two against Dundee, two against St Johnstone, one against Kilmarnock and Ross County. Nothing against a top-six team.
“I’m a striker and I’ve been important but I want to be more important,” he said.
“I had a good period and now it’s less goals, but I’m still confident. I’m not worried about myself, about my work ethic, because I know what I can bring and I will try to bring it.”
Changing that recent run (no goals in three and only one in seven) against Aberdeen at Hampden on Saturday is the target. It’s a game to help “save our season,” he says.
And, for Hearts, it’s a season most definitely in need of saving. Missing out on the top six in the league was a grim failure.
Kabangu only joined in January, but he’s been around long enough to know that it’s nowhere near good enough for a club of their size. He says he hardly left the house for a day or two after the 0-0 draw with Motherwell that confirmed their bottom-six fate.
“It’s a hard question to say what went wrong because we worked very hard and I’ve seen everyone focused. It’s just painful. The fans are angry and I’m also angry.
“We have to demand more and we have to do more, but I cannot stay in disappointment. I see so much more potential in this team and in this club, so when you don’t achieve those goals, it’s painful, that’s the truth.
“But after that you need to accept the reality. We have a semi-final and that’s important. We need to look forward.”
Faith was always a part of who he is and is one of the reasons why his closest friend at the club is Beni Baningime, another player whose life is steered by his belief in God. That and their shared Congolese heritage.
Since his weeks in a coma the spiritual side of his life has increased.
“I have to say it is more now. Obviously, when you survive a coma, you understand a lot of things. For me, there is no other thing than Jesus Christ.
“He’s my saviour, so I try to spend most of the time with him, with my Bible, reading and understanding his words. It’s more than important for me. It’s a question of life.
“In the morning, I pray. Then, when I arrive at the club, I have my Bible and I read. After training, I go home. I have my Bible and then I worship.
“In the evening, I pray. That’s what I try to do. I pray and read God’s words. When I arrived here, I met Beni, my Congolese brother and my Christian brother. We have pretty much the same life. We spend our life with Jesus and we try to read and worship as much as we can.”
His life in Edinburgh is good, but he doesn’t know how long he will be here. He has another year to go at Union and Hearts would have to buy him out of that. So he’s living in the moment and thinking only of Aberdeen and this Hampden semi-final.
“My Hearts debut came against Aberdeen, a 00 draw. I had an opportunity to score. They’re a good team, but we have enough good players to think that we can win. We have to have that belief.”
