Leandro Benítez (born 5 April 1981) is a retired

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

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 usually played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

on the left side of the pitch.

Career

A native of Ensenada, Benítez grew in the youth system of

Estudiantes de La Plata Club Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "Students from La Plata"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata , is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, wh ...

, and in 2001 was loaned to Quilmes where he played two years, and then to Olimpo where he stayed another two years. Back in Estudiantes since 2005, Benítez was part of the 2006 ''Apertura'' championship team. In 2008, he was runner up with the team in the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...

. Subsequently, he was a starter and key contributor on the team that won the

2009 Copa Libertadores The 2009 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2009 Copa Santander Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 50th edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, CONMEBOL's premier annual international club tournament. The ...

. The midfielder played in 14 games, and scored 1 goal (against

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

in the semifinal) during the tournament. In the

2009 FIFA Club World Cup The 2009 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2009 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was a football tournament played from 9 to 19 December 2009. It was the sixth FIFA Club World Cup and was played in A ...

, Benítez scored twice in the semi-final against

Pohang Steelers The Pohang Steelers (Hangul: 포항 스틸러스) are a South Korean professional football club based in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province that compete in the K League 1, the top flight of South Korean football. The Steelers were founded on 1 A ...

in a 2–1 win.

Coaching career

After retiring, Benítez became the manager of Estudiantes's reserve team. On 14 June 2017, Benítez was appointed as caretaker manager of Estudiantes until the end of the season following the departure of

Nelson Vivas Nelson David Vivas (born 18 October 1969) is an Argentine former professional footballer and manager who played as a right-back. Vivas featured for clubs Quilmes, Boca Juniors, Lugano, Arsenal, Celta de Vigo, Internazionale and River Plate. He ...

. On 20 September 2017, he was once again appointed as the caretaker manager of the club, this time following the departure of Gustavo Matosas. He was in charge for one game, before a new manager was appointed nine days later. On 7 May 2018, he was again appointed as caretaker manager for the rest of the season after

Lucas Bernardi Lucas Ademar Bernardi (born 27 September 1977) is an Argentine former professional footballer and manager. He played as a defensive midfielder. Club career Bernardi began his playing career with Newell's Old Boys before joining French team Oly ...

resigned. At the end of the season, he was appointed as the permanent manager of the club. On 24 February 2019, Benítez decided to resign after a period with poor results.ESTUDIANTES SE QUEDÓ SIN DT: RENUNCIÓ LEANDRO BENÍTEZ
infocielo.com, 24 February 2019

Honours

;Estudiantes *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). Th ...

(2): 2006 Apertura, 2010 Apertura *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

(1):

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

References

External links

Argentine Primera statistics
at Fútbol XXI * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benitez, Leandro 1981 births Living people Footballers from Buenos Aires Province Argentine men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Quilmes Atlético Club footballers Club Olimpo footballers Curicó Unido footballers Boca Unidos footballers Primera B de Chile players Argentine Primera División players Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Estudiantes de La Plata managers Argentine football managers