Orlendis Carlos Benítez Hernández (born 26 November 1996) is a Cuban professional footballer who plays for the

Simcoe County Rovers Simcoe County Rovers Football Club is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Barrie, Ontario, that plays in the League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. History The club was founded in 2021, by former Canadian national team pl ...

in League1 Ontario.

Playing career

He began his career in his native Cuba with

FC La Habana FC La Habana is a Cuban football team playing in the Cuban National Football League and representing La Habana Province. They play their home games at the Estadio La Polar in Havana or in the town of Guanajay Guanajay is a town and municipa ...

. During the 2018–19 season, he was named the Best Player of the

Campeonato Nacional de Fútbol de Cuba Campeonato Nacional de Fútbol de Cuba is the top division of the Asociación de Fútbol de Cuba, it was created in 1912. Despite being a league competition in CONCACAF, since 1990 none of the Cuban teams had played in CFU Club Championship or CO ...

. In 2021 and 2022, he played for Vaughan Azzurri in League1 Ontario. In June 2022, he joined Canadian Premier League club Forge FC on a short-term loan. He made his debut for Forge on 12 June against Pacific FC. In February 2023, he signed with the

in League1 Ontario. He was named the L1O Midfielder of the Year in 2023.

International career

In late August 2019, he received his first call-up to the Cuba national football team for their

2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League The 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League was the inaugural season of the CONCACAF Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The Nations League qua ...

matches against Canada in September. However, ahead of the match, he defected from the squad to settle in Canada and not return to Cuba.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benitez, Orlendis 1996 births Living people Men's association football midfielders Cuban men's footballers Footballers from Havana Cuban expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Cuban expatriate sportspeople in Canada League1 Ontario players Canadian Premier League players Vaughan Azzurri players Forge FC players Simcoe County Rovers FC players