Background and career
Raymond Bwanga Tshimenu (born 4 January 1949 in Élisabethville, Belgian Congo) is a former footballer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Bwanga won the 1973 African Footballer of the Year while with TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi. During his playing days in the early and mid 1970s he was nicknamed "Black Beckenbauer" by the African and French press due to his playing style.
Bwanga was voted the IFFHS Player of the Century for the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2000. In 2006, he was selected by CAF as one of the best 200 African football players of the last 50 years.
He is the cousin of fellow footballer Kazadi Mwamba.
