Gregorio "Goyo" Benito Rubio (21 October 1946 – 2 April 2020) was a Spanish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He spent most of his 16-year professional career with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

Club career

Benito was born in

El Puente del Arzobispo El Puente del Arzobispo is a municipality of Spain located in the province of Toledo, Castilla–La Mancha. The municipality spans across a total area of 0.98 km2 and, as of 1 January 2020, it has a registered population of 1,225. Together with nei ...

Province of Toledo Toledo is a province of central Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cáceres, and Ávila. Its capital is the city of Toledo. ...

, Castile-La Mancha. After practicing

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

in his early teens, inclusively being national

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the ...

champion at school level, he signed for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

powerhouse

in the summer of 1963, aged nearly 17. After two years on loan to neighbouring

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Lig ...

, in

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

( his second being cut short as he was called for

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require a ...

Sidi Ifni Sidi Ifni ( Berber: ''Ifni'', ⵉⴼⵏⵉ, ar, سيدي إفني) is a city located on the west coast of Morocco, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, with a population of 20,051 people. The economic base of the city is fishing. It is located in ...

), he returned to his main club, remaining there for the following 14 seasons and winning six leagues and five Spanish Cups. In 1982, after a total of just 16 league appearances in his last two seasons, Benito retired from football at the age of 35 and with Real Madrid competitive totals of 420 games and three goals. For his services to the club, he was only one of two players to have the ''Laureada'' being bestowed upon him by president Santiago Bernabéu – the other being

Pirri José Martínez Sánchez (born 11 March 1945), nicknamed Pirri, is a Spanish former footballer. A central midfielder in the early part of his career, he finished up as a sweeper. He spent the vast majority of his career with Real Madrid, appear ...

International career

Benito earned 22

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, over roughly seven years. His debut was on 9 May 1971 in a 2–0 away win against

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

in the

UEFA Euro 1972 The 1972 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Belgium. This was the fourth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 14 and 18 June 1972. Only four ...

qualifiers, but he would never take part in any major international tournament as the national team failed to qualify for any during that timeframe. Additionally, Benito was part of the squad at the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, playing all the matches for the eventual quarter-finalists.

Death

Benito spent his final years in a

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to in ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, suffering from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

. On 2 April 2020, he died of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

at the age of 73 after his residence was one of several hit by the pandemic.

Honours

Real Madrid *

: 1971–72, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80 *

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

: 1969–70, 1973–74, 1974–75, 1979–80, 1981–82 *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

runner-up: 1980–81 *

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

runner-up: 1970–71

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benito, Goyo 1946 births 2020 deaths Sportspeople from the Province of Toledo Spanish footballers Footballers from Castilla–La Mancha Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Real Madrid CF players Rayo Vallecano players Spain under-23 international footballers Spain amateur international footballers Spain international footballers Olympic footballers of Spain Footballers at the 1968 Summer Olympics Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain