Christian Benítez

**Christian Rogelio Benítez Betancourt** (May 1, 1986 – July 29, 2013), also known as **Chucho**, was an  Ecuadorian footballer who played as a forward for El Jaish of the Qatar Stars League at the time of his death.

On July 29, 2013, Benítez entered a hospital in Doha, Qatar because of a "strong pain" in his abdomen. He later went into respiratory failure. He died from complications leading to cardiac arrest at the age of 27.

### Club

|rowspan="2"|Club|rowspan="2"|Season|colspan="3"|League|colspan="2"|National cup|colspan="2"|League cup|colspan="2"|Continental|colspan="2"|Total|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="5"|El Nacional|2004|rowspan="4"|Serie A|1|0|||||–|1|0|
|2005|30|6|||||1|0|31|6||||
|2006|38|16|||||12|0|50|16||||
|2007|15|7|||||4|1|19|8||||
|rowspan="4"|Santos Laguna|2007–08|rowspan="3"|Primera División|40|17|||||–|40|17|
|2008–09|20|14|||||8|5|28|19||||
|2010–11|35|20|||||4|1|39|21||||
|Birmingham City (loan)|2009–10|Premier League|30|3|5|1|1|0|–|36|4|||
|rowspan="3"|América|2011–12|rowspan="2"|Primera División|36|22|||||–|36|22|
|2012–13|43|30|||–|–|43|30||||||

### International goals

- _Scores and results list Ecuador's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Benítez goal_.

|#|Date|Venue|Opponent|Score|Final|Competition|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|6 September 2006|East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States||1–0|1–1|International friendly|
|2|23 May 2007|East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States||1–0|1–1|International friendly|
|3|6 June 2007|Barcelona, Spain||1–0|2–0|International friendly|
|4|26 June 2007|Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela||1–2|2–3|2007 Copa América|
|5|8 September 2007|Quito, Ecuador||2–0|5–1|International friendly|
|6|4–1||||||
|7|20 August 2008|East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States||1–0|1–0|International friendly|
|8|6 September 2008|Quito, Ecuador||3–1|3–1|2010 FIFA World Cup qualification|
|9|12 October 2008|Quito, Ecuador||1–0|1–0|2010 FIFA World Cup qualification|
|10|9 September 2009|La Paz, Bolivia||3–1|3–1|2010 FIFA World Cup qualification|
|11|4 September 2010|Zapopan, Mexico||1–0|2–1|International friendly|
|12|12 October 2010|Montreal, Canada||1–0|2–2|International friendly|
|13|2–2||||||
|14|17 November 2010|Quito, Ecuador||1–0|4–1|International friendly|
|15|2–0||||||
|16|1 June 2011|Toronto, Canada||1–1|2–2|International friendly|
|17|2 September 2011|Quito, Ecuador||3–0|5–2|International friendly|
|18|4–0||||||
|19|6 September 2011|Quito, Ecuador||4–0|4–0|International friendly|
|20|7 October 2011|Quito, Ecuador||2–0|2–0|2014 FIFA World Cup qualification|
|21|15 November 2011|Quito, Ecuador||2–0|2–0|2014 FIFA World Cup qualification|
|22|10 June 2012|Quito, Ecuador||1–0|1–0|2014 FIFA World Cup qualification|
|23|21 March 2013|Quito, Ecuador||2–0|5–0|International friendly|
|24|26 March 2013|Quito, Ecuador||3–1|4–1|2014 FIFA World Cup qualification|

### Club

**El Nacional**
- Serie A: 2005 Clausura, 2006

**Santos Laguna**
- Mexican Primera División: Clausura 2008

**Club América**
- Liga MX: Clausura 2013

### Individual

- Serie A Best Player: 2006 Serie A
- Liga MX Golden Ball: Clausura 2008, Apertura 2012
- Liga MX Golden Boot: Apertura 2010, Clausura 2012, Apertura 2012, Clausura 2013

## Other websites

- Transfermarkt profile
- Player details  at Ecuadorian Football Federation
- ESPN Profile
- Profile at Birmingham City F.C. website

## Infobox (football biography)

- **name**: Christian Benítez
- **image**: Benitez-America.jpg
- **image size**: 220px
- **caption**: Benítez playing for Club América in 2012
- **fullname**: Christian Rogelio Benítez Betancourt
- **position**: Forward (association football), Striker
- **birth place**: Quito, Ecuador
- **death place**: Doha, Qatar
- **youthyears1**: 1997–2005
- **youthclubs1**: Club Deportivo El Nacional, El Nacional
- **years1**: 2004–2007
- **clubs1**: Club Deportivo El Nacional, El Nacional
- **caps1**: 84
- **goals1**: 29
- **years2**: 2007–2011
- **clubs2**: Club Santos Laguna, Santos Laguna
- **caps2**: 95
- **goals2**: 51
- **years3**: 2009–2010
- **clubs3**: → Birmingham City F.C., Birmingham City (loan)
- **caps3**: 30
- **goals3**: 3
- **years4**: 2011–2013
- **clubs4**: Club América, América
- **caps4**: 79
- **goals4**: 52
- **years5**: 2013
- **clubs5**: El Jaish SC, El Jaish
- **caps5**: 0
- **goals5**: 0
- **totalcaps**: 288
- **totalgoals**: 135
- **nationalyears1**: 2005–2013
- **nationalteam1**: Ecuador national football team, Ecuador
- **nationalcaps1**: 58
- **nationalgoals1**: 24