meet Romeo Benítez, new Athletico striker

“Talent that dazzles and a player that makes a difference.”

This is how the Paraguayan Football Association described the striker Romeo Benitez in December, when it awarded the main highlights of the local championship. Highlight of Guarani, the 21-year-old player was chosen as the revelation of the tournament. Now, he has been announced as the club’s second signing. Athletico for 2024 – signed a five-year contract and would have cost US$3 million (R$14.85 million) for 80% of the rights.

O OneTwo Sports brings more about the Paraguayan.

Who is it

Just like defender Mateo Gamarra, announced this week from Olimpia, Bernardo Romeo Benítez Fariña was also born in Concepcion400km from the capital Asunción, in Paraguay, more precisely in Puentesiños (current Sergeant José Félix López district), which borders Brazil, and has just over seven thousand inhabitants. He took his first steps in football at a club in his city, Club Jóvenes Unidos, and in 2017 he went to Club Cerro Corá de Concepción. At 15, he was taken to Guaraní, where he debuted as a professional in April 2022.

In both Clausura and Copa Paraguay, Benítez had a good season, despite the team failing to qualify for the Libertadores. Speed ​​forward and dribbler, used to “make a difference”, as the local media approached it. He wore shirt number 10 at Guaraní and wore number 11 at Furacão.

“He was practically kicking a ball since he was a baby. Everything he came across he kicked. If he didn’t have a ball, any stone he would kick,” said his mother Mirta Fariña in an interview with journalist Christian Pérez and published on the website Versus.

Loss of father

Romeo went through a tragedy involving his father. Child, I was watching him play football on a court called “Senior“, in Puentesiños, which also functioned as a football school. The boy was responsible for replacing the balls that went too far and witnessed the accident.

“I saw that he fell normally on the field, and I didn’t pay much attention. Normal. Then he left, I saw that he was in pain. And then they went to the hospital by ambulance. I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to him, everyone was in a big hurry . He went first to Bella Vista, then to Pedro Juan Caballero and then to Assunção, and then he was hospitalized. At first he was fine, he was talking again, asking about us. He was fine, but then one day started to get worse and Soon after, they informed me that he passed away.“, he told journalist Christian Pérez (watch below, from 19′).

Romeo was just eight years old when he lost his father and regretted not being able to say goodbye, give him one last hug.

“I remember when they gave me the news, it was an aunt. I was playing with my cousins ​​and then I heard a call. Then I heard that they were talking strangely and I wanted to know what was happening. And then they told me that my father had died . If I knew what was going to happen, I wouldn’t let him go. I wouldn’t let him go anymore.”

Goal at Botafogo

Last year, he was in the sights of San Lorenzo, who wanted to loan the player, then 19 years old, but Guaraní did not want to release him, only for a definitive purchase. At the club, he played 41 games in 2023, 29 as a starter and 12 as substitutes, with six assists and eight goals – one of which came against the club. Botafogo (see below), in the first game of the round of 16 of the South Americanat Nilton Santos.

In celebration, Benítez dedicated the goal to his friend Antonio Marín, also born in Concepción, and with whom he shared a room in a boarding house when he played for Guaraní.

“I moved into his room (when I was at the boarding house), he bought a refrigerator, and every time I received my salary he sent me to the supermarket to buy everything I wanted”, he recalled in an interview with VersusRadioIn August.

In September, Benítez made a great goal against Guaireña, in the Paraguay Cup, when he got rid of the marking and played over the goalkeeper in great style. Check it out below!

Highlight among promising players

In February, Romeo was featured in a world ranking on best young players in the world, carried out by the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES Football Observatory). In the study, the Paraguayan appeared in the Top-10 among the most promising athletes – first on the list was Jude Bellingham, who played for Borussia Dortmund at the time.

Almost played with Messi

Benítez almost didn’t play with the star Lionel Messi in the United States. Recently, Emilio Daher, president of Guaraní, revealed in an interview that the striker aroused interest from InterMiami.

“We are at the end of the year and I said at the beginning of the championship that it was non-transferable. Now, we have received concrete offers for him and other players too, but we are not going to release players in a desperate way, to receive money that is not convenient for the club’s intentions”, he told the program Football a lo Grande, from Radio 1080 AM, before the agreement with Athletico.

The interest was confirmed by Tata Martino, coach of Inter Miami.

“Football players are appearing auspiciously in Paraguay, Diego Gómez who is already with us, Julio Enciso in the Premier League, Matías Segovia in Brazil and Romeo Benítez, from Guaraní, who we have seen since we arrived here”, he said in an interview with March 1st 780 AM In August. It is worth remembering that Segovia cost Botafogo 1.5 million dollars (R$ 7.3 million at the time).

Datasheet

Full nameo: Bernardo Romeo Benítez Fariña.
Birth: 14/11/2002 (Concepción, Paraguay).
Position: attacker.
Height: 1.70m.
Career: Guaraní-PAR.

Read too: