José de La Cruz Benitez Santa Cruz (born 3 May 1952 in

Asunción Asunción (, ) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of Asunción in the north ...

), is a former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Benítez started in the youth divisions of

Olimpia Asunción Club Olimpia is a Paraguayan professional sports club based in the city of Asunción. It promotes the practice of various sports, with most importance given to the football, rugby and basketball sides, football being the most successful. Fou ...

and made his debut with the first team squad in 1971. In 1977, he was transferred to Internacional of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

where he won several titles and became a favorite among the fans. In a friendly match on 4 December 1983, Benítez suffered a severe injury after colliding with another player during a game which forced Benítez to end his football career. He made 94 appearances in the Campeonato Brasileiro for Internacional and Palmeiras. Benítez made an appearance for the

Paraguay national football team The Paraguay national football team (), nicknamed ''La Albirroja,'' represents Paraguay in men's international Association football, football competitions, and are controlled by the Paraguayan Football Association, Asociación Paraguaya de Fút ...

in a

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It wa ...

qualifying match against Brazil.

Titles

*Under-20 South American Champion: 1971 (with the

) * Paraguayan League: 1971, 1975 (with Olimpia) *

Campeonato Gaúcho The Campeonato Gaúcho (English: Gaúcho Championship), officially named as Campeonato Gaúcho de Futebol Série A and commonly known as the Gauchão or the Gauchão Ipiranga (company), Ipiranga for sponsorship reasons, is the top-flight profess ...

: 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983 (with Internacional de Porto Alegre) * Campeonato Brasileiro: 1979 (with Internacional de Porto Alegre)

References

1952 births Living people Paraguayan men's footballers Paraguayan expatriate men's footballers Paraguay men's international footballers 1975 Copa América players Club Olimpia footballers SC Internacional players SE Palmeiras players Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Men's association football goalkeepers Footballers from Asunción {{Paraguay-footy-goalkeeper-stub