Christian Benitez – An Ecuadorian Soccer Star

Christian Benítez is the son of Ermen Benítez, who was also a famous football player and was one of the top scoring players of his day. Benítez has also become steadily recognized for his agility, speed and elusiveness when handling the soccer ball and is playing more and more like his father.

Christian Benítez was born in Quito, Ecuador on the 1st of May 1986. The twenty-one year old weights 150 pounds and stands at 5 feet 6 inches. Benítez was first recognized for his soccer skills when he played for the under-17 and under-20 national soccer teams in Ecuador.

In 2006, at the FIFA World Cup in Germany, Christian Benítez was selected to play and represent the Ecuador National football team by his Colombian-born coach, Luis Fernando Suarez. Benítez participated in the latter half of the match against Germany when he replaced Felix Borja. At the end of the World Cup he was recognized, for the first time, as the ‘Gillette Best Young Player’. This is an award, which is given to players that are either born on the 1st of January 1985 or after and are considered one of the best young players at the FIFA World Cup event.

This was the eighteenth International Football Association World Championship tournament and was held from the 9th of June to the 9th of July 2006. Benítez’s National team was one of a hundred and ninety-eight football teams that were playing to qualify for this huge event. At the end, only thirty-one teams had the privilege of participating in this international event in Germany.

In August 2006 Christian Benítez made his first goal in an international game against a Peruvian team. Benítez also scored a goal against Ireland in their match played in New Jersey. In 2007 he has continued to make goals. This time he scored against Chile in a match that took place on the 27th of June at the Copa America 2007. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this successful soccer player.