Walter Benítez will fulfill the dream of his life: he will save in the goal of the Argentine National Team. Lionel Scaloni wants to see him in action with Albiceleste, so he will send him on the field from the start in the friendly match against Costa Rica, the second of the double FIFA date in March. Born in Chaco 31 years ago, Benítez dazzled during his time in France and Didier Deschamps, coach of the French team, tried to seduce him, but the goalkeeper chose to wait for his chance in Argentina. And he gave it to him.
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“Stopping in the National Team would be heaven: it is my personal and professional goal,” Benítez said in 2020, before his first call-up to the light blue and white team. However, the call would be long in coming: despite his great performances, the current PSV Eindhoven player from the Netherlands would only be called up to the Argentine national team in May 2023.
The French National Team wanted him in their goal
El Mudo, as they call him, showed an enormous level at Nice, a club in which he remained for six seasons and where he was a figure in several games. He even became a global trend in a match against PSG in which he saved a penalty from Uruguayan Edinson Cavani.
For this reason, and after he became a French citizen in 2021, Didier Deschamps had him in his sights to call him up. But the Chaco native always had it clear that he wanted to defend the Albiceleste goal. “Since I did not play with the Argentine National Team, there is a possibility that they will call me from the French team. “I don’t close the door to anyone, but I am Argentine and I would love to play with my country’s national team,” he declared that year in a conversation with ESPN.
Paraguay also tried to have him in their National Team
During his time as coach of the Paraguayan National Team, in 2021, Guillermo Barros Schelotto contacted Benítez, who has Paraguayan grandparents, to nationalize him and add him to the Albirroja. “Guilermo contacted me at the time, that there was an interest, they were trying to look at the issue of the papers to see if it was possible, but to date nothing has happened. It is another thing that we will evaluate,” the goalkeeper acknowledged at that time in an interview on TyC Sports.
From scoring goals to avoiding them: he was a striker and at the age of 9 he fell in love with the goal
Born in General San Martín, Chaco, on January 20, 1993, Walter Daniel Benítez took his first steps in football in his town, General San Martín, 120 kilometers from the Chaco capital, Resistencia. At that time, when he played with his friends in the neighborhood, he was a striker. However, one day everything changed. “I started as a striker, but the day I went to goal it clicked for me. It was a seven-on-seven game, on a court with more dirt than grass, and I enjoyed throwing and rolling more than being a striker. At the age of 9 I decided to be a goalkeeper,” he told La Nación some time ago.
Already on track, he trained as a goalkeeper at the Quilmes Club under Marcelo Pontiroli. He debuted as a professional in Cervecero on April 15, 2014 in a 3-1 victory against Vélez corresponding to the 2014 Final Tournament, with Ricardo Caruso Lombardi as coach.
After 51 games played with the Quilmes shirt, he emigrated to Europe in June 2016 to play for Nice, in the French First Division, where he saved in 188 games and kept a clean sheet on 55 occasions.
In June 2022, after six years in France, he arrived with a pass in his possession to PSV Eindhoven, a team with which he signed until 2025.
Walter Benitez, the Argentine goalkeeper who wanted the French National Team (IG: @walterbenitezoofficial)
Benítez eagerly awaited his call to the Argentine National Team after representing the Under 20 team in the South American tournament held in the country in 2013 and raising his level in the clubs where he played. He even showed his annoyance publicly, on social networks, after not being part of the list that Scaloni announced for the friendlies with Germany and Ecuador played in October 2019, at a time when he was going through his best moment. in France. A handful of minutes after the list was known, he wrote on his Twitter account: “No comments.”
Before, in the run-up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, he was among the preselected but finally an injury sidelined him from the final cut.
The happiness of Walter Benítez in a training session for the Argentine National Team with his colleagues Dibu Martínez and Franco Armani. (Photo: Instagram walterbenitezoficial).
The call of Lionel Scaloni
In May 2023, Lionel Scaloni announced the list of those called up for the Argentine National Team’s tour of Asia in the month of June for the Argentine National Team’s matches against Australia and Indonesia. That was the first call for Walter Benítez, who could not add minutes at that time.
In November he was among those summoned for the double date of the South American Qualifiers towards the 2026 World Cup, against Uruguay and Brazil, but he did not enter either. Finally against Costa Rica he will have his long-awaited debut with the light blue and white.
Argentina vs. Costa Rica: time and where to see
The Argentine National Team will face Costa Riva at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, starting at 11:50 p.m. in Argentina, and will be broadcast on the sports signal TyC Sports and on Public Television.
Probable formations of Argentina vs. Costa Rica
Argentine national team: Walter Benítez; Nahuel Molina, Cuti Romero, Nicolás Otamendi, Nicolás Tagliafico; Alexis Mac Allister, Leandro Paredes, Enzo Fernández; Ángel Di María, Julián Álvarez and Alejandro Garnacho. DT: Lionel Scaloni.
Costa Rica national team: Keylor Navas; Gerald Taylor, Julio Cascante, Pablo Arboine, Francisco Calvo, Joseph Mora; Warren Madrigal, Orlando Galo, Jefferson Brenes, Álvaro Zamora; Manfred Ugalde. DT: Gustavo Alfaro.
2024-03-26 15:41:32
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