Christian Benitez passes away

Professional Griefer

Ecuador striker Christian "Chucho" Benitez has passed away after complications relating to appendicitis.
Ecuador striker Christian Benitez, also known as "Chucho", has passed away this morning, his agent and the national team co-ordinator have confirmed.
The 27-year-old's sad death is a huge shock, and has come about after complications relating to appendicitis, according to his father-in-law. The disease then became peritonitis before leading to respiratory arrest.
Benitez played for El Nacional and Santos Laguna in his career before a season on loan at Birmingham City in the Premier League, before returning to Mexico with Club America before joining El Jaish in the Qatari league. He also played at the 2006 World Cup for his country, picking up 58 caps in his career.
The highly-talented striker's surprise death will come as a huge blow to football. Antonio Valencia, a close friend of the striker, took to Twitter earlier to tweet his condolences to his family and mourn his death as reports began to filter through, which were confirmed by the player's club, agent, and father-in-law.

Link.

Played with Birmingham for a while. Only 27, tragic.

Mars Bar

That's horrible.

R.I.P

LuckyLloyd

Scored goals at a very good clip in South American football. Sounds like a very unfortunate and tragic passing.

Johner

Awful news. RIP Chucho.

Amirani

That news comes as a massive shock. Very sad.

Pudsy33

The **** Thought he was a cracking player during his stint in the premier league. I remember him well. Very upsetting.

GavRedKing

Tragic news alright, always a shame when you hear of guys dying so young.

Amirani

He was only being linked to Spurs and Swansea earlier on this month: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/tottenham-transfer-news-christian-benitez-2025169

kevohmsford

Terrible news to hear. RIP

fungun

BBC Sport says died in a car crash. Thats a pretty loose complication to link with his appendicitis.

Unless it burst whilst he was driving

JPA

RIP

Oat23

So sad.

His last tweet - https://twitter.com/Chucho_B11/status/329688920390512640

internet_user

think he had an excellent first season? R.I.P

Neil3030

Oat23 wrote: »

So sad.

His last tweet - https://twitter.com/Chucho_B11/status/329688920390512640

"My two loves, and I, with my birthday cake", pictured with his 2 kids



RIP

Moneymaker

Terrible news, RIP.

Amirani

Oat23 wrote: »

So sad.

His last tweet - https://twitter.com/Chucho_B11/status/329688920390512640

Seeing that just gave me a big sinking feeling in my stomach. That's really heartbreaking. Poor kids.

Nailz

Such awful news.

My thoughts and condolences are with his family and friends.

dubmick

Neil3030 wrote: »

"My two loves, and I, with my birthday cake", pictured with his 2 kids



RIP

That is heartbreaking

Grid.

Jeez.....R.I.P Chucho:(

niallo27

He scored a cracking goal at anfield one year didnt he.

Johner

niallo27 wrote: »

He scored a cracking goal at anfield one year didnt he.

No, that was Jerome.

Saw Benitez playing for Birmingham against Chelsea at St Andrews in 09. He was a very talented player(had a goal wrongly disallowed that day). Such a shame to lose someone so young.

Hootanany

Brilliant player shame McLesh would not play him RIP.

Nuri Sahin

Really sad news. As a football, he had a lot of attributes you'd want in a forward. I remember Dortmund being heavily linked with him a few years ago too.

niallo27 wrote: »

He scored a cracking goal at anfield one year didnt he.

You're thinking of Cameron Jerome's goal, Chucho did score their opener that day though. A close range header I think it was.

Kiwi_knock

Birmingham City hero, played an integral role in our unbeaten run in 2009/2010 season. Had pace and power, was only missing his impressive goal scoring ability that he demonstrated so well in Central and South America.

Rest in Peace Chucho.

Barr

Tragic storey

R.I.P

Mr.Nice Guy

It was only a few weeks ago I was listening to Tim Vickery talking about him and how he was doing so well in South America. I think there were rumours linking him to clubs in Europe before his recent move to Qatar.

Very sad news to hear.