Pedro Alberto Benito Ponomar (born 27 March 2000) is 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 plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Albacete Balompié Albacete Balompié is a Spanish football team based in Albacete, in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Founded on 2 August 1940, it currently plays in Segunda División, the second tier of Spanish football, holding home matches ...

Club career

Born in

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

, Benito represented RCN El Puerto de Santa María, UD Pavía (two stints),

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001, when it was renamed ''Unión D ...

(two stints),

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

Anorthosis Famagusta FC Anorthosis Famagusta ( el, Ανόρθωση Αμμοχώστου, translit=Anorthosi Ammochostou), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Anorthosis Famagusta multi-sport club fo ...

and

CD Canillas Club Deportivo Canillas is a Spanish football club based in Madrid, Spain. It was founded in 1961 and plays in the Categoría Preferente de Aficionados, the fifth tier of Spanish football. CD Canillas is a feeder team of Real Madrid. History Ca ...

as a youth. In January 2018, after already making his senior debut with Pavía's first team in the regional leagues, he moved to the United States after accepting a Business Administration and Sport Management degree at the

Oklahoma Wesleyan University Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU) is a private university of the Wesleyan church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. In 2018, the school had 1006 undergraduate students, with approximately 600 of those on its main campus in Bartlesville. History Okl ...

. After spending the 2018 season with

Oklahoma Wesleyan Eagles Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU) is a private university of the Wesleyan church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. In 2018, the school had 1006 undergraduate students, with approximately 600 of those on its main campus in Bartlesville. History Okl ...

, Benito played the 2019 campaign for the

Gardner–Webb University Gardner–Webb University (Gardner–Webb, GWU, or GW) is a private Baptist university in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (Southern Baptist Convention). It was founded as Boili ...

's Runnin' Bulldogs side. He returned to his home country in 2020, after joining

UCAM Murcia CF Universidad Católica de Murcia Club de Fútbol, commonly known as UCAM Murcia or simply UCAM, is a Spanish football club based in Murcia. Founded in 1999 it plays in Segunda Federación, holding home games at ''Estadio de La Condomina'', with ...

's reserves in

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

. On 27 May 2021, Benito signed a two-year deal with

Cádiz CF Cádiz Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., known simply as Cádiz, is a Spanish professional football club based in Cádiz, Andalusia. Founded in 1910, the club competes in the La Liga, holding home games at Nuevo Mirandilla, with a seating capacity of 20 ...

, being initially assigned to

the B-team The B-Team was a professional wrestling tag team in WWE, composed of Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel. The team are former one-time WWE Raw Tag Team Champions. They also formerly performed as The Social Outcasts and The Miztourage from 2016 to 2018 be ...

in Segunda División RFEF. He made his first team – and

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 ...

– debut on 2 October, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Álvaro Negredo Álvaro Negredo Sánchez (; born 20 August 1985) is a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who plays for Cádiz CF, Cádiz as a Striker (association football), striker. Nicknamed ''La fiera de Vallecas'' (The beast of Vallecas ...

in a 0–0 home draw against

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spa ...

. On 30 November 2021, Benito was loaned to

Primera División RFEF Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

side

San Fernando CD San Fernando Club Deportivo Isleño is a Spanish football team based in San Fernando, Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 2009, it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, holding home matches at Estadio Bahía Sur, ...

for the remainder of the season, effective as of the following January. On 2 July 2022, he signed for fellow third division side

UD San Sebastián de los Reyes Unión Deportiva San Sebastián de los Reyes, also known as Sanse is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in San Sebastián de los Reyes, in the autonomous community of Community of Madrid, Madrid. Founded in 1971 it pla ...

. On 19 June 2023, Benito signed a two-year contract with

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 ...

Personal life

Benito's father

Alberto Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic ''Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Albertin ...

was also a footballer. 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 ...

, he also played for Cádiz. His mother is Ukrainian. A supporter of Cádiz, Benito is also a well-known personality on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, having more than one million followers on his account.

International career

He has expressed his interest in playing for the Ukraine national team.https://www.eldesmarque.com/cadiz/cadiz-cf/noticias-cadiz/195994-pedro-benito-y-su-relacion-con-la-guerra-de-ucrania-pendiente-de-kiev

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benito, Pedro 2000 births Living people Footballers from Cádiz Spanish men's footballers Spanish people of Ukrainian descent Men's association football forwards La Liga players Primera Federación players Segunda División B players Segunda Federación players Tercera División players Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol players UCAM Murcia CF B players Cádiz CF Mirandilla players Cádiz CF players San Fernando CD players UD San Sebastián de los Reyes players Albacete Balompié players Oklahoma Wesleyan Eagles soccer players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Wales Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Wales Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus