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Christian ‘Chucho’ Benitez, a national symbol
Posted On 29 Jul 2013
Chucho Benitez (May 1, 1986-July 29, 2013)
Christian Rogelio Benitez Betancourt, was born on May 1, 1986 in Quito, Ecuador. The 1.68 meters and 68 kilograms player, became notorious in 2007 in Mexico, with the club Santos Laguna, while in Ecuador he began with El Nacional club where he remained from 2001 until 2007.
In the Santos Laguna, Benitez was champion of the Clausura 2008 and remained there until the end of the Clausura 2009.
For four tournaments he scored 31 goals, then went, as loan, to Birmingham City in the Premier League for the 2009-2010 season, where he only managed to score four goals and the English club did not validate the purchase option.
Afterwards he returned to Santos in the Apertura 2010 tournament where he became scoring champion with 14 goals, the following year he made two more in the playoffs but in the Clausura 2011, his sporting rhythm slowed down and only managed to score four times and was later sold to the America club.
Benitez’s career in America was a success in the Clausura 2013, the Chucho scored 12 goals, making him a three-time scoring champion. In that same tournament became the America club was champion.
Three weeks ago he was transferred to Al-jaish club of Qatar SC, by unsubstantiated figure of about 18 million dollars, which the media of the Arab country rated as the highest number of that soccer player.
Benitez started in the selection of Ecuador in recent years and his first goal was scored in the Tri against Peru in September 2006. He participated in the 2006 World Cup in Germany and in the qualifying matches for South Africa 2010 and was a permanent member of the team contesting the World Cup qualifying for Brazil 2014.
As selection scorer, Benitez scored 24 goals recently surpassed the historic scorer Alex Aguinaga (23) and had placed himself in the third place in the overall standings of Agustin Delgado (31) and Eduardo Hurtado (26) and it was assumed that, for his age (28 years) and his career could surpass those players scores.
